A bold black-and-white journey to the city and back again, with an art style almost reminiscent of Peter Max. While I thought the visuals were bold and appealing, I wasn't 100% convinced they could all read two ways. A class of third graders thought it was mind-blowingly awesome, though. ( )

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book flips upside down to reverse the story, 5-8 year olds ( )

This is a creative picture book where someone is going on a trip… leaving from their town, driving through the country into the city… then turning around and driving home again. The creative part is that half-way through, once they leave the city, the reader turns the book upside down to follow along to head home. The photos work in both “directions”.

It is creative. It reminded me of “Mirror Mirror” the poetry book of “reverso” poems – read one way, then you can read from the bottom up and it’s kind of the opposite story of reading it “down”. I guess this one should really get the credit, though, as it was published in 1983! The pictures were a bit more artsy than I like, though of course, they had to be drawn in such a way that they would work right-side-up, and again, upside-down. Overall, I’m rating this ok. ( )

This book is a good tool for teaching students about perspectives as well as creative liberty with constructing a book. It's a great way for pulling students in to think beyond their immediate guess of what the illustrations are about. It can also be used to talk about how authors write stories that come full circle - start and end at the same place. ( )