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A Long Way Away: A Two-Way Story    by Frank Viva Amazon.com order for
Long Way Away
by Frank Viva
Order:  USA  Can
Little, Brown & Co., 2013 (2013)
Hardcover
*   Reviewed by Bob Walch

A most unusual book - you can read A Long Way Away from the back or front. It works either way! Frank Viva created this picture book on a single, continuous twenty-six foot long piece of art using Adobe illustrator. Then the lengthy masterpiece was divided into two page spreads that would accommodate this book format.

Start on one end of the book and you are underwater. As you flip the pages you begin your ascent from the deep and see numerous sea creatures, human divers, a submarine, and even some submerged trash.

When you reach the surface there's a boat, seagulls, and even a seaside village. But your journey isn't over yet. You continue skyward and pass a helicopter, jetliner, an orbiting satellite and even some planets.

There's not much text here and what there is pretty much consists of single words and a few expressions. But you'll get the idea that this is a rather fanciful, serendipitous journey of discovery and it's what the reader makes of it that is perhaps most important.

Quite honestly, some youngsters will find no point to this book and think it is stupid. But there will be others who will love it and want to look at it over and over again. It may be a tricky call to figure out exactly to whom A Long Way Away will appeal.

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