German / Austria
Der Schneeleopard
((The snow leopard))
Hochleitner, Verena
(text/illus.)
Wien: Luftschacht, 2021. – [42] p.
ISBN 978-3-903081-89-5
Spring | Park | Cat | Father | Daughter | Imagination | Picture book
Reading age: 3+
White Ravens issue: 2021
Spring is finally here and Maresa goes to the park with her dad. Whom does she encounter there? A real snow leopard wearing a black top hat! Where the sandpit used to be, the feline creature is having a good stretch. Of course, Maresa has to try a few tricks with him: somersaults, jumping through hoops, and the tower, too – what a brave girl! “Der Schneeleopard” celebrates the imagination of children and the great potential of picture books. Verena Hochleitner’s pictures are steeped in saturated colours – after a long winter, the meadow is not muddy brown, but almost bright orange – and the pages are designed with lots of variation. Some double-page spreads are teeming with details, others are divided up into individual scenes like a sequential story, and speech bubbles are used to create a comic-book feel. The artist also makes clever use of both endpapers to present a tableau of all the characters that appear in the story. Readers can flip back and forth and will enjoy all the wonderful things to discover. [IG]