A couple of years later after moving to Waiheke I met a local Children’s picture book author and illustrator team, I loved there Cork Voyages series and the opportunity to talk about one of my pleasures in Children’s Picture books and was impressed they had such positive reactions to Oliver’s work, this prompted me to indulge what was a passive fancy of Children’s books into a full blown enthusiasm, so I tracked down Oliver’s other works had a brief email chat and eagerly awaited the delivery of ‘The Great Paper Caper‘.

On initial inspection I was a little disappointed, in that much of the irreverent style of the ‘The Incredible Book Eating Boy‘ was gone to be replaced by a mush more studied looking design, but this was more of a failing of relying to much on my expectations then a fault of the illustration so I soon got over myself. On closer inspection there are some clever little cheeky elements that give the book a cross over appeal to both parents and children alike. The story its self as with most of Oliver Jeffers’s work is not as strong as the illustration, however that being said his illustration is very strong so it always going to be hard for the words to keep up.

I’ve only seen a hard back copy of the book. I don’t know if there is any intention for a paper back to be produced. I would encourage you to get the hard back in preference as the dust cover treatment sets it apart from the current crowd on the shelves at the moment. The dust cover turns the book into more of an object then a simple book, I love books that do this, so hats of to the man.

In summary ‘The Great Paper Caper‘ is a fine book, a slight diversion from his previous work in style but good fun none the less, if there is a choice between hard and paper, get the hard back as its more of an experience, I wish I had for the book eating boy at least.

I only hope that when I have finished illustrating the book that I am working I will walk into a book shop and see it sitting side by side with this book and hopefully give as much enjoyment to others as these simple little things give to my family. (does that sound a bit over the top? yea probably, but I’m tired and excited, so I’ll allow myself that)

Other books by Oliver Jeffers include:

• Lost and Found
• The Way Back Home
• How to Catch a Star

NB: I just noticed on amazon that there has indead been a release of The Great Paper Caper
in softback form, I’ve not seen it myself as the children’s book shops on Waiheke Island are limited so I cant comment on if it works or not yet.

David Gedge is a fine writer of words, I don’t know if he writes anything other the songs but he should, no songwriter I have ever heard can write about the frustration and complexity of emotions involved with love and relationships in our time, no other singer can then deliver them with the fragile awkwardness of emotion as him either. When you couple this with a rich orchestral sound and heavy overloaded guitars and fine production values, there is left a spinning silver disc of joy and melancholy fit for inducing introspection and release.

In summary

You can probably tell that I rate this as one of the most complete and beautifully crafted pieces of music that has ever graced my heart, quite why it is so underrated I will never know.

I had seen the previous album around a lot whilst I was lining in Australia but avoided it as it was always recommended by folks who’s tastes I found a little out of tune with my own, anyway the live performance blew me away, it was loud and noisy but with a real melodic and metronomic hypnotism about it but most of all you could tell that the sounds I was hearing where being made by folks who where having a heap of fun making them. I ordered the CD form the record label as I often prefer to do, as I think that you get a much better service over ordering from the likes of amazon. Another good label to order stuff direct from is Southern Records, anyway it eventually arrived from the USA and I slipped it in the side of my machine and immediately fell in love with the sounds I was hearing, a perfect mix of folk, noise, psychedelia and voodoo, I can think of no better suited label then Young God for them as the musical spaces remind me so much of the latter period Micheal Gira’s – Swans & Angels of Light. My eldest has the title tracks on her Ipod and looking at the amount of times she listens to it makes me a proud father.

In Summary

An album that never fails to put a smile on my face and I cant wait to see them live.