This picture book focuses on the story of a young boy who loves Robinson Crusoe, so he dresses up as the character for a fun a day in school. Because his costume is much different from his friends', he gets teased all day long. Eventually, however, the story's conflict is resolved, and the boy's self esteem is restored. While the illustrations in this book are beautiful and calming, the story itself is pretty predictable and boring. The book is lacking in detail and an interesting theme. Ultimately, children will not gain any groundbreaking overarching theme from this book besides the typical "be nice to people" bullying lesson. For people who are interested in talented illustrations/artistry, I would consider looking into this book. For people searching for a captivating storyline, this is probably not the book for your interests. ( )

In this picture book, the author blends a true story from his childhood with adventures from the 1719 novel Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Defoe. The Defoe book, though fiction, purports to be the autobiography of the title character, who is in a shipwreck and then spends 28 years on a remote tropical desert island before he is rescued. During those years, he battles all sorts of dangers, and learns how to survive on his own.

Sís explains in an Author’s Note that Robinson Crusoe was one of his favorite books as a child. He even won a school costume contest dressed as Robinson Crusoe, but was disheartened when his friends made fun of him, even though they generally played pirate games.

And then he became sick. He reports:

“I was running a fever and stayed in bed for days. Did I really travel to Crusoe’s ‘Island of Despair’? Whatever happened in those lonely days of my shipwreck, it made me stronger. In my solitude, I became master of my own island. And I believed in myself again. So when my friends came to visit, I was able to forgive and forget and move on. They all wanted to hear stories of Robinson Crusoe. And we may have even read the book together.”

This book tells the story of the costume contest, his subsequent illness, and his fevered dreams of being marooned on an island. Very cleverly, his bed turns into a boat in stages, with the intermediate stage having an open book for masts.

The author, who is also the illustrator, manipulates his palette to change mood as well as setting. He even varies his artistic style from spread to spread, with many pages showing only a minimum of text, in marked contrast to his previous works. But each two-page spread is packed with meaning nevertheless, whether from lushly-colored landscapes or pastel floral fantasies.

Evaluation: Peter Sís is one of a small set of wonderful authors for children who can be appreciated on an entirely different level by adults, with neither audience feeling shortchanged. Children will spend hours pouring over the pictures, which may even inspire them to check out the story of Robinson Crusoe for themselves. ( )

After reading Robinson, I have mixed feelings about it. The book drew my attention because of the beautifully illustrated cover of the intricately drawn map along with the use of watercolor to create the different hues in the water. But I didn’t like the actual content of the story since it doesn’t really develop the main character at all, but rather just recounts his dream of being Robinson Cruise after being made fun of as dressing up as him on Halloween. The language itself also fell flat compared to the illustrations. It’s not very challenging for the reader as it uses simple, short sentences to recount for the main character’s adventures. This story was also narrated in the boy’s (Peter’s) point of view. The story begins by describing Peter and his friend’s plans of being pirates for the upcoming school costume party. When he shares this idea with his mother, she suggests he goes as Robinson Cruise since he is Peter’s favorite adventurer and he agrees. She handmakes his costume and the day of the costume party arrives, but his friends laugh and tease him and he goes home. It’s important to note that the color used in the illustrations before he is made fun of are pastel, representing his happy mood. However, when he goes home after the party the colors used are dark in order to represent his disappointment and sadness for how the party went. This was a characteristic of the story I really enjoyed, since it gives the reader a sense of the feelings and emotions Peter was going through, allowing them to put themselves in his shoes and relate to him. He falls asleep and dreams of becoming Robinson Cruise, building a house on an island and learning to survive. The change in colors on the pages throughout his dream are vivid and bright to represent his dream-like occurrences. I didn’t like that these pages seemed a little rushed as it seemed like he spent weeks on the island in his dream when it only spanned across a few pages. Near the end of his dream, he is confronted with a group of pirates and he wakes up, only to reveal his friends who made fun of him previously for his costume apologizing to him. On the page where he woke up, the illustrations are drawn within an oval. This was a really cute aspect of the story since it represented him just waking up from his dream and coming back to reality. The colors on these pages also return to the pastel colors used during the beginning of the book in order to continue to emphasize the idea that the hues used reflected Peter’s mood. I didn’t like the ending since it seemed unfulfilling for the reader. He just wakes up and continues on after his friends apologized to him.
The big idea of the book remained unclear, but if I had to say it would be the power of a child’s originality and imagination in strengthening relationships. Peter was pushed to be original and wear a costume that was different from his friends but was criticized for it. Despite the chance that he would be made fun of, he chose to wear his costume anyways, encouraging the reader to be yourself and find others who accept you for who you are. After he woke up from his dream, his friends surrounded him and apologized, wanting to learn more about Robinson Cruise. This strengthened his relationship as his friends accepted his differences and wanted to learn more about it in order to gain a better sense of understanding. This can be a lesson for the reader, to not criticize somebody for their originality but to embrace it and broaden their overall knowledge on things that may be unfamiliar to them. Overall, I thought this was a very cute story with beautifully done illustrations, but the text could’ve been more challenging for the reader. ( )

Delightful!!!! ( )