Hmmm... That's what I was thinking after having read, re-read, and contemplated the multiple meanings, messages, motivators for learning in this strange children's book. I really liked it, it was thought provoking and used very intellectual language and dialogue.
Turner tells a story about two travelers, X and Y who crash land in their "aerocycle" on the land of Wontoo which just happens to be populated by some very strange and different these beings - numbers! Upon closer study of the mysterious new peoples, X and Y find that there are two groups - odds and evens. Of course the story gets even stranger when the children of the Wontoois are brought into the "equation." You see, a couple of even numbers have even children, a couple of odds have even children, but it is ONLY when an even and an odd "hook-up" that odd kids are produced.
Wow! Weird.
I could analyze this book as a work in anthropology (a mirror to our own anthropological studies of those who are different, who are "the other"), as a book to introduce numbers or odds and evens, or perhaps X and Y are the variables?? I just don't know how to interpret it, but however it is done, the book is just plain CRAZY - crazy in a good way.
I'm not sure if younger children would be able to keep up with vocabulary and hidden meaning, but the illustrations and basic story line are engaging nonetheless. Actually, the illustrations are amazing, they tell a story all by themselves, I was lost for over an hour in these watercolor paintings by Whitney Turner (it would have been longer if I hadn't forced myself to stay on task. What creativity and imagination it must have taken to create this story of adventure!
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