Up HIGH by Matt Hunt

I love sharing books with you that combine wonderful artwork with memorable words. Up High by Matt Hunt is about a little boy going for a walk with his Dad. The world looks and feels scary to the small child until his father puts him up on his shoulders.

This is a story about perspective. And author/illustrator Matt Hunt uses brilliant design to reinforce the story telling. Notice that on the cover, the title cuts off at the top of the tall, skinny book. You can’t get up any higher on the page than that.

The artist uses this same cropping technique to reinforce size. When the entire little boy is shown on a page, then Dad, who is bigger is cut off. This illustrative choice also shows the viewer/reader that the story is all about the little boy and his vantage point.

Crowd scenes feel claustrophobic as we lose ourselves in towering bodies.

And then we come full circle. Our little boy begins to notice and look at the things around him that are smaller than he is. Finally, the illustrator switches perspective again and now the boy is big and cropped off the pages as he observes tiny beetles and ants.

On the surface a simple story. But, because of the brilliance of Matt Hunt’s clever and creative design choices, the illustrations tell us, by showing us, even more of the story. As readers, we gain more meaning from a little boy’s walk through a park. We learn that our perspective varies depending on our vantage point, where we look, and the details that we choose to notice.