Oneones

This is a super adorable book with gorgeous art and interesting design details. For example, twice there is a pair of pages with complimentary illustrations and a semi-translucent page between them. That velum-type page has a related pattern on it - for example, the pages about tennis are split by a tennis net. Cut-outs and foil are also used, as well as imaginative layouts and text (or lack of text).

The book is a picture book, more or less, that begins on Coco's first birthday. She's a little terrier dog. It follows her through the year as she plays, makes friends, and enjoys seasonal scenery, and ends on her second birthday, with much the same text as it began. One thing to note for the wary is that one of the friends Coco makes goes to the vet in the middle of the book and apparently dies there - this is very softly touched upon and could be read differently, though a later page refers to god, implying that the friend is now in heaven.

Despite my dislike for saccharine religious stuff, I didn't find that part of the book to be horrid. I thought it was well-done and a nice way to soften the impact of the other dog's implied death, especially since it is not uncommon to have a belief of an afterlife.

I wouldn't necessarily call it a children's book, though it is a picture book, because it seems to me that it has universal age appeal. The art and design are just so lovely. It's definitely something I would recommend to anyone looking for a sweet, cute, beautiful picture book.… (meer)