The cover of this book for young people drew me right away
and the beautiful art and clever concept of a mole
surrounded by cogwheels in his tunnel made me want to read
more. MOLETOWN is a short book by Torben Kuhlmann, the author of
LINDBERG: THE TALE OF A FLYING MOUSE. Originally
published in German, it has few words but the pictures tell
a great story - for any age group.
A mole arrives in a meadow and his relatives come to join
him in this splendid new home. Tunnelling and building,
they quickly create impressive galleries and discover coal
to exploit, so they have stoves, wiring and trains
underground. More and more moles live in busy Moletown.
This means that their cosy burrow homes have to become more
compact, and at the same time, isolating. While out in the
meadow, the smoke and dirt threaten to create a spoiled
earth. Will they be able to counter the problems?
Some pictures are a parody of modern office life or the
skyscraper builders munching lunch on a girder over
thin air. The fable is gorgeously illustrated with an eye
for fine detail, like the worms and grubs in the earth or a
game console controller beside a mole who has hung his
helmet up for the night. As for the tunnel boring engines,
you'll want one too!
I love it! MOLETOWN is for young and old, and I definitely
want to see more books by Torben Kuhlmann. He studied
illustration and design at the University of Applied
Sciences in Hamburg and has been nominated for awards with
his first book. Clearly, he has an inventive and amused mind
so let's hope he keeps putting it to such good use.
Torben Kulhmann's stunningly illustrated, nearly wordless
tale offers a
fascinating window into an imaginary, yet hauntingly
familiar word under our
feet, where a mole suddenly recognizes the precarious
balance between progress
and preservation.
Kulhmann's open ended text encourages
thoughtful
exploration into possible solutions, and his delightful
endpapers depict a
montage of solutions that could very well save the moles'
world and ours.
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