This Thing Called Life, an intelligent illustrated book on any level

A children’s illustrated book can be a simple thing. They can also attempt to convey complex matters. It’s really rare to have an illustrated book tackle life. It was done a couple of years ago with One Day A Dot, a book that distills the universe in a STEM-happy way for young children to understand. This Thing Called Life by Christian Borstlap addresses the same grand scale of life, but does it in a simpler way, via timeless graphics, simple-yet realistic text, a sense of humor, and a side vibe of Monty Python’s Flying Circus.

When I finished looking at the book the first time I said to myself “Wow, that was something”. It’s worth noting that I was by myself, in the basement, and about to go to bed; yet I was still so moved by This Thing Called Life that I spoke out loud. I then pinched myself, just to be sure that I wasn’t going crazy and re-read the book.

As an adult reading This Thing Called Life it is amazing. The book is a great, good-night book in that it’s simple enough to be read once to ages two and up one time, but entertaining enough to re-read it multiple times so that children can grasp the humor, sight words, or lessons. It also spans a massive number of ages. You hear the description ‘illustrated book’ and you have in your mind’s eye something that will attract those pre-k through first-grade ages. Here is the curveball, because of the humor and intelligence in the book it demos much older, all the way through third grade for those ages to read, enjoy and learn something from.

The illustrations are dry, creative, funny, and always entertaining to look at. It’s not too colorful. The hues have more a classic, muted appearance that will remind older readers of some of the classic children’s books that they read growing up.

This Thing Called Life starts out with a black view of space and the moon in the foreground. It then zips through a giant, unfamiliar jungle world with a familiar, yet totally alien bird laying an egg. That’s where life starts. After that, things move, the poop, eat, take, hunt, run, and more that all add up to living. As you read the book you’ll be taken aback as to how simple the text is.

There is only one line of text on each page. While all of them aren’t sight words, the text is simple enough for small children through middle school ages to understand and enjoy them. Some pages are taken up entirely by the graphics. There’s one page that we really enjoy that just has hundreds of blue, yellow, and red ants walking around. On the page opposite that it simply states ‘life can be complicated’.

The art is some of the most comforting to look at and original that we’ve seen in a while. The plants and animals look familiar but are also otherworldy and feel like they’re going to move around like some of the animation in Monty Python’s Flying Circus. That combined with the concise, intelligent text makes this an illustrated book that soars above its peers. The book is being released in 2020, but has such a timeless, classic vibe your grandkids will pick it up and it’ll feel brand new and relevant.

This Thing Called Life is by Christian Borstlap and on Prestel Junior, an imprint of Penguin Random House.

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