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A few years ago, when I first read “A Stroll,” I couldn’t help but marvel at its magic. Now, as my experience in the world of picture books grows, this pure black and white picture book amazes me even more. Its magic is unrepeatable, even by the creator himself!
The story begins at dawn. The painter drives the reader from the peaceful countryside, through the woods of the mountains, along the coastal highway, to a large city, where they stop to explore. As the sun sets, they climb the tallest building to overlook the city. At this point, we realize we’ve reached the end of the book. Does the story end there? The magic is just beginning. When we flip the page 180 degrees, we’re still in the city, but we’ve moved from the fading evening to the brightly lit night. Turning the page back again, we’re walking from the rooftop to the street, looking up. Turning the page further, we’re actually walking back, finally returning to the home we started from under the deep moonlight.
A painting that looks one way when viewed right side up and another when viewed upside down isn’t unusual in itself; many designers play with this kind of visual game. But the fact that it can be strung together into a story when viewed right side up and upside down, and that it connects perfectly, turning a 36-page story into a 72-page one, is truly rare! I can’t think of anyone else who has done this before; the artist Ann Jonas only ever created this one.
After the book was published, some people criticized its storyline as too thin and arbitrary. While this criticism certainly makes sense from a literary perspective, it’s somewhat unfair for this type of work. Not all picture books have a “literary mission.” Ann Jonas admits that her goal in creating picture books is to “explore various ways to expand children’s imaginations.” As a painter and graphic designer, she has become increasingly interested in incorporating visual play into her picture book creations.
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Let’s go to the movies——On the way
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Let’s eat——On the way back
The greatest reward of reading a book like this is the visual delight: what you see as twinkling skyscrapers when viewed from the front is a starlit city sky; what you see as a movie theater when viewed from the front is a train car or dining room when viewed from the back; what you see as marshland weeds when viewed from the front becomes fireworks in the sky when viewed from the back… Perhaps the most fascinating part is the bridge, which, when viewed from the back, is a row of telephone poles against a starry sky! Of course, not every image is so easy to see; I spent a long time trying to discern the image of the empty town transformed into a river tunnel. The key is to focus your eyes on the most similar point first. Gradually, the illusion will naturally take hold as you get used to it. And when you actually see it, the feeling is truly magical.
To some extent, painting and design exploit visual illusions to elicit corresponding psychological responses. However, the use of these illusions isn’t purely instinctive. While the artist’s creative process requires cultural understanding, skill, and imagination, the reader’s appreciation is equally crucial. Take, for example, the reversed image effect of houses and buildings in a book: when the background is white and the houses are black, it feels like daytime. Reverse the perspective, viewing the black houses as the background and the white areas as the houses, and it feels like nighttime. Why is this so? This illusion stems from everyday experience, though we often don’t pay much attention to it. Observe a house under strong daylight and a building illuminated at night; the sharp contrast creates a silhouette. I believe this is a key reason why the artist uses only black and white, allowing black and white to alternate between image and blank space. This design concept unexpectedly resonates with the Tai Chi Yin-Yang diagram. Let’s boldly speculate: if more colors were used besides black and white, could such a perfect visual effect be achieved?
I once read about an American teaching design that borrowed the idea of “A Stroll Around” to teach children a math game: each child was given half a sheet of black paper and half a sheet of white paper. Instead of using a pencil, they used scissors to cut out black shapes and place them on the white paper, or cut out white shapes and place them on the black paper, comparing the different effects. The theme was called “Spatial Relationships,” and it mirrors the design idea mentioned above.
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Crossing the bridge — on the way
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Telephone Pole — On the way back
“A Walk Around” is the result of the artist’s long-term accumulation and careful design, and is also the crystallization of an inspired loving family. On the title page, the artist dedicated the book to “Don Nina
Some mistakenly believe that the painting “Amy” refers to a person named Don Nina Amy, but it is actually dedicated to the other three members of her family: her husband Donald, her eldest daughter Nina, and her second daughter Amy. Donald was already a picture book illustrator with two Caldecott Honors, while Nina later became a renowned photographer and picture book illustrator. Ann and Donald were college classmates, and after graduation they worked together, married, and had a daughter. The father began creating picture books when his daughter was four years old, clearly greatly influenced by his child. Nina later recalled that she had loved her father’s books since childhood. The mother, on the other hand, originally focused on art design, not starting to experiment with picture book creation until 1982, when she was already in her forties. It is said that Nina was leaving home for college, and her mother’s unique attachment to her mother evoked childhood memories, prompting her to draw something for her children. She only had to try it once before she became hooked, and from then on, she couldn’t stop. “A Stroll,” published in 1983, is her third picture book and her most amazing.
Three painters from one family: Nina, Donald, and Ann
We turned to the first page and set off; we turned to the last page, but it wasn’t finished, so we turned around and went back; we turned back to the first page and went home.
So, we walked around…
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Watching Seaweed — On the Way
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Watching the fireworks — on the way back
