Small In The City

Written & Illustrated by Sydney Smith

 

ISBN: 978-1-4063-8840-4

 

Published by Walker Books

 

Reviewed by Karl Andy Foster

 

Publishers website http://www.walker.co.uk/Small-in-the-City-9781406388404.aspx

 

Sydney Smith https://www.sydneydraws.ca

Pitch

This is something special. Sydney Smith’s narrative power is his ability to immerse the reader into the world and concerns of a small child. His spare economical prose and exquisite artwork propels you towards a startling destination. This is an honest and credible story that after drawing you in leaves you satisfied, perhaps with one or two tears in your eyes.

 

Review

In this hard cover picture book there are some lovely observations visual and textual. The initial four panels with the silhouettes and blurred streets convey the sense of unease. A child roams around the city encountering a range of scenarios and offers advice that may or may not be of comfort to a stranger.

 

Sydney Smith’s carefully constructed pages are a mixture of full spreads and panels. Of note is the double page spread when the child leaves the bus and makes their way into the throng of the crowds. In addition, the words “I know what it’s like to be small in the city” or “The streets are always busy. It can make your brain feel like there’s too much stuff in it.” I particularly enjoyed “Alleys can be good shortcuts. But don’t go down this alley it’s too dark.” We are completely involved with the concerns of our young protagonist.

 

The grid lines of buildings, walk ways and street furniture create a web suggesting a trap for the uninitiated. There is a stunning picture of the child’s reflection fractured by the arrangements of the mirror tiles on a building façade. We soon realise that this advice is not aimed at the reader but at something far more important. The revelation at the end of the picture book came as a surprise for me but I did start to get an inkling of what was to come.

 

Sydney Smith has created a classic that will make a big impression on readers with a story that though simple is imbued with a graphic fluidity combined with a visual dexterity that few can match. This for me is reminiscent of Ezra Jack Keats’ atmospheric The Snowy Day when I read it for the first time. The artwork nods in a knowing direction towards Dave McKean’s ‘Cages’ and ‘The Savage.’ The use of a subtle and sophisticated palette suffused with interpretive impressionistic inky marks and charcoal lines is thrilling.

 

If this picture book and his 2017 Kate Greenaway Medal winning collaboration ‘Town Is by the Sea’ written by Joanne Schwartz is anything to go by Sydney Smith is on his way to great significance. When you are small in the city you can still have the biggest heart of all.

 

08 October 2019