The Dog Walk

'This wordless book is so lavishly detailed, so exuberantly trippy, a kid can spend hours getting lost in its pages. The Swedish author/illustrator Nordqvist's narrative follows a boy taking his grandmother's shaggy white dog out for a walk. But this is no ordinary stroll around the block: The twosome travel through fantastical landscapes and interiors that feel straight out of a Hayao Miyazaki film or a G-rated Hieronymus Bosch painting. There's a garden where goats pull 18th-century aristocrats on dollies, and a town square where gnomes drink beer and a ginormous rat plays the accordion. There's an over-the-top antique shop stacked with weaponry and taxidermy, and a looping, Escher-esque train line. It's the kind of densely illustrated book (like one of Mitsumasa Anno's classic "Journey" books) where you can always find a new mischievously hidden detail. Kids will love using the spreads to play "I Spy." (Find the car shaped like a baguette! Find the man eating the plate!) Grown-ups will appreciate Nordqvist's sly visual jokes, like the stick figures who seem to have wandered in from another book entirely and the regular appearance of cranky businessmen -- a reminder that wonder is where you find it.'
-- The New York Times

'The unpredictable sense of scale unsettling, but the ink, watercolor, and acrylic drawings have the genteel elegance and wide-ranging imagination of classic fairy tale illustration and will reward multiple readings.'
-- Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

'Amusement abounds in the mixture of modern and historical aesthetic elements, Alice in Wonderland variety in proportions of the fantastical beasts and people, and tiny, expressive faces.
The perfect choice for a rainy day for readers and nonreaders alike.'
-- Kirkus Reviews, Starred Review

'It begins straightforwardly enough: a child takes grandma's dog for a walk. Suddenly, everything changes - it's like Alice in Wonderland and M.C. Escher teamed up to make a wordless picture book. An incredibly intricate and dreamlike journey.'
-- School Library Journal's list of The Most Astonishingly Unconventional Books of 2021

'Descriptions for each page of this wordless story could merit a full-page review. Sven Nordqvist of Findus and Pettson fame has created a book that could be pored over and examined many, many times, each time discovering something new. (I used a magnifying glass to view the tiny, tiny figures)... Really you have to see this book; it defies description as the little girl and the dog travel to every imaginable fantasy world and back home to the old lady.'
-- Youth Services Book Review, 5 stars

'A boy takes a dog for a walk through magical realms in this wordless seek-and-find book. The illustrations are an intricate delight for both children and their helpers, while finding the boy -- in his red baseball cap -- and his fluffy white dog remains an age-appropriate challenge. In the spirit of scavenger-hunt books, the illustrations are busy -- a cluttered curio shop; an underwater playroom -- but a fantastical twist makes this title a unique addition to the genre.'
-- Foreword Reviews

'The Dog Walk is an intriguing picture book that tells a whimsical story without words. The book features many detailed and intricate designs.'
-- YA Books Central, STARRED REVIEW

'Kids will enjoy the croquet game, a town made up entirely of cats, the Alice-in-Wonderland atmosphere, and the marvelously detailed scenes of castles, knights, playrooms, cities, islands, dungeons, and forests on 21 detailed pages.'
-- The Children's Hour

'A beautiful wordless story following a dog walk through an incredible array of settings.'
-- RaisingSmallReaders (Instagram)