Karla Strambini

I picked this up because the title and the cover art drew me to it at the library. It's a nice book about creativity and being original/going against the grain. Norman Qwerty brings his ideas to the world (whether the world realizes it wants them or not). There's a little more to the story than a quick read shows--you have to look at the illustrations for the full picture. The illustrations are detailed and beautiful, alluding to invention sketches, only extremely detailed and quirky. I would definitely have wanted to pick this up for the art alone.

Definitely a book that honors and encourages creativity!… (meer)

The story itself is deceptively simple and it is all too easy to flip through this book and get only a small portion of the visual symbolism in the cartoon illustrations. Its important to attend to the pictures closely because they express much of the depth of the book. For example, the people's hats all reveal their inner thoughts which they disguise under literal lock and key. Because people do not all their own uniqueness to show, Qwerty believes he is the only unique one until his typewriter allows people to express their thoughts and ideas. A deep message for kids about the importance of expressing oneself as a way of allowing others to fully express themselves too.… (meer)

Quirky enough to be worth a look, this story speaks to the imaginative child who hides that creativity for fear of being seen as weird. The clever name for the protagonist comes from the letters of the keyboard; indeed an old-fashioned typewriter is pictured in the opening spread. I thought it might figure more prominently in the story. It didn't. But the parts and gears and junk that literally fill the character's head, he kept under his hat:"But when his ideas escaped, as ideas often do, they GREW, and GREW." What a lovely idea to plant in the minds of readers.… (meer)