Ploof – written and illustrated by Ben Clanton and Andy Chou Musser
Tundra Books, 2023
Children are not the only people fascinated by clouds, by they certainly are fascinated by these ever-changing forms, which seem both tangible and intangible. If you’ve looked at clouds from both sides now, you will enjoy meeting Ploof. This little cloud starts out sad, becomes happy, then shy, sort of like a child.
But then Ploof turns into a star, a bunny, a train, a rocket, and wedge of cheese. The ordinary limits that people and objects face are meaningless to Ploof, who becomes a small, puffy representative of a child’s imagination. Unlike Marianna Coppo’s fabulous Thingamabob, where the cloud-like shape-changer has some anxiety about its identity, or Tomie dePaola’s The Cloud Book, with its mixture of fact and myth, Ben Clanton‘s text in Ploof just invites readers to pretend. Ploof is the protagonist, and he/she can do anything.
Andy Chou Musser’s pictures are primarily white on a sky-blue background. Ploof’s features are black pencil lines reminiscent of a child’s artwork. Other colors enliven the scenes: a brown tree with green leaves, a fanciful play of colored kites. Then these seemingly disconnected visions turn to a two-page spread of look-and-find, where Ploof is hidden on a farm. While he closely resembles the sheep, other items really stand out. An adult will easily seem the humor here, but children may focus on the actual search for their friend, Ploof.
Even Ploof’s name is ephemeral. Yet he does hold still long enough to offer affection. (This thoroughly relaxing and gentle book will have a sequel this fall, Paint with Ploof.)
Imaginary Elevators 