Age: Preschool-Kindergarten

The illustrations are gorgeous and the die-cut artwork is really intricate and a lovely concept. The story is a bit too whimsical for me because I'm not really sure why both inkdrop and snowflake are so delighted to find each other.

I would definitely buy this book as an artwork keepsake for adults or children.

The Story of Snowflake and Inkdrop, written by Alessandro Gatti and Pierdomenico Baccalario, with clever illustrations by Simona Mulazzani, is a book that employs a few gimmicks in its illustration and layout which serve to tell the story of the calamitous meeting of the two title characters. Utilizing a layout that reads from both ends of the book toward the middle, we're given the perspectives of each character toward the event that is their meeting. As two characters that are contained within collections of similar objects, we see into the world through cut paper openings within many of the pages that look onto partial and indecipherable views. The translation from the Italian original story is slight and insignificant. The illustrations are highly evocative and magical, saving a rather bland book from being completely uninteresting. This book exhibits the difficulty of having inanimate objects as primary characters. Consequently, this book is only clever by half.

Hmmm. This is certainly a unique book, large and tall, with bright, whimsical paintings, an unusual use of die-cuts, and two stories printed opposite each other that meet in a center fold-out. But the story doesn't gel for me. I'd have to test it out on kids, but I can't think they would get it either. Why would an inkdrop and snowflake be ecstatic to meet? I need some backstory.

I liked it, but I didn't *love* it.

Things I did like:

The illustrations are beautiful. You could sit and study just the pictures in this book for ages. This book could probably work as a wordless book.
I liked the open-ending. It's open to interpretation what their embrace meant, and the stories they tell.


I'm also very sad, because I know the beautiful snowflake cutouts aren't going to last very long in my library.

What a beautiful, artful little book! Love the upside down/backwards stories and the cutouts

I LOVED this book! 4 or 5 stars, but it's a favorite, so it should be 5 stars. This brought me joy and surprised me. This is a work of art, not much of a story. The story is simple. There are two stories in one each starting from one of the covers and meet in the middle. There is a Snowflake falling to Earth and there is an Inkdrop waiting to be in an art project.

We see each of them through these beautiful cut out pages of color. It was amazing - their view. Then the middle is a fold out of what happens when 2 worlds collide and the beauty that happened and the unexpected.

The kids were interested too. I am stunned by this work of art. I think I want to own this book. OMG. I'm so touched by this book. The simple story was enough for the beauty of the book - in my opinion. It was a great vehicle for it. LOVE.

This book is unlike any other picture book i've ever read. the tiny human and i liked it a great deal.