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Du Iz Tak?
The creator of Home turns a droll eye to the natural world, with gorgeous art and a playful invented language.
Du iz tak? What is that? As a tiny shoot unfurls, two damselflies peer at it in wonder. When the plant grows taller and sprouts leaves, some young beetles arrive to gander, and soon—with the help of a pill bug named Icky—they wrangle a ladder and build a tree fort. But this is the wild world, after all, and something horrible is waiting to swoop down—booby voobeck!—only to be carried off in turn. Su! With exquisitely detailed illustrations and tragicomic flair, Carson Ellis invites readers to imagine the dramatic possibilities to be found in even the humblest backyard. Su!
Du iz tak? What is that? As a tiny shoot unfurls, two damselflies peer at it in wonder. When the plant grows taller and sprouts leaves, some young beetles arrive to gander, and soon—with the help of a pill bug named Icky—they wrangle a ladder and build a tree fort. But this is the wild world, after all, and something horrible is waiting to swoop down—booby voobeck!—only to be carried off in turn. Su! With exquisitely detailed illustrations and tragicomic flair, Carson Ellis invites readers to imagine the dramatic possibilities to be found in even the humblest backyard. Su!
48 pages, Hardcover
First published October 18, 2016
About the author
Carson Ellis
32 books355 followersCarson Ellis is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture books Home and Du Iz Tak? (a Caldecott Honor book and the recipient of an E.B. White Read Aloud Award). She has illustrated a number of books for kids including The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart, The Composer Is Dead by Lemony Snicket, and The Wildwood Chronicles by her husband, Colin Meloy. Carson has been awarded silver medals by the Society of Illustrators for her work on Wildwood Imperium and on Dillweed's Revenge by Florence Parry Heide. She's the illustrator-in-residence for Colin's band, The Decemberists, and received Grammy nominations in 2016 and 2018 for album art design. She works sporadically as an editorial illustrator for The New Yorker, The New York Times, and others publications and exhibits art on occasion. She’s represented by Nationale in Portland.
Carson lives on a farm in Oregon with Colin, their two sons, two cats, one llama, three goats, many chickens, and an unfathomable multitude of tree frogs.
Carson lives on a farm in Oregon with Colin, their two sons, two cats, one llama, three goats, many chickens, and an unfathomable multitude of tree frogs.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 816 reviews
September 9, 2017
Du Iz Tak? by Carson Ellis is a children's picture book about a group of bugs and how they discover a new sprouting plant. They watch it grow and change through the seasons.
What makes this book so unique is the very unique and imaginative language that the author has made up. It's a great way to get kids thinking and makes them work on decoding skills. The illustrations are also very detailed and intriguing.
Overall, it's just a fun book for children to enjoy.
This is a Caldecott 2017 honorable mention.
4****
What makes this book so unique is the very unique and imaginative language that the author has made up. It's a great way to get kids thinking and makes them work on decoding skills. The illustrations are also very detailed and intriguing.
Overall, it's just a fun book for children to enjoy.
This is a Caldecott 2017 honorable mention.
4****
October 8, 2019
4.5ish stars.
I will seriously have so much fun with this book. I can already picture myself using this in some of my classrooms. It's written completely in an invented language, but we can more or less infer the meaning of the dialogue. "More or less" still leaves lots of room for imagination and interpretation. "Du iz tak?" might mean "What is this?" or maaaybe it means "Are you yummy?" Who's to say it can't be either? In that sense it lets us as the readers become the narrators. There are lots of opportunities to embed thematic learning experiences (seasons, plants, insects) but, if nothing else, it's lots of fun!
The illustrations by Ellis (who both wrote and illustrated) are clean, precise, predictable, and highly detailed. It's fun to search for all the minute differences from page to page. The illustrations really drive the story. Or at least help the readers to drive. :)
Illustrations: 4.5
Story: 4.5
2017 Caldecott Rankings:
1) Leave Me Alone!
2) Du Iz Tak?
3) They All Saw a Cat
4) Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
5) Freedom in Congo Square
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
I will seriously have so much fun with this book. I can already picture myself using this in some of my classrooms. It's written completely in an invented language, but we can more or less infer the meaning of the dialogue. "More or less" still leaves lots of room for imagination and interpretation. "Du iz tak?" might mean "What is this?" or maaaybe it means "Are you yummy?" Who's to say it can't be either? In that sense it lets us as the readers become the narrators. There are lots of opportunities to embed thematic learning experiences (seasons, plants, insects) but, if nothing else, it's lots of fun!
The illustrations by Ellis (who both wrote and illustrated) are clean, precise, predictable, and highly detailed. It's fun to search for all the minute differences from page to page. The illustrations really drive the story. Or at least help the readers to drive. :)
Illustrations: 4.5
Story: 4.5
2017 Caldecott Rankings:
1) Leave Me Alone!
2) Du Iz Tak?
3) They All Saw a Cat
4) Radiant Child: The Story of Young Artist Jean-Michel Basquiat
5) Freedom in Congo Square
Posted in Mr. Philip's Library
July 5, 2021
Honestly, Carson Ellis' absolutely delightful Du Iz Tak? (What is That?) is for me not only a perfect picture book both illustratively and textually, but is also a book which I dearly wish I could rate with more than the five star maximum allowed by Goodreads (as in my opinion, Du Iz Tak? is a ten star offering, a glowingly amazing and evocative homage to life, to the seasons, to imagination and fun, and to have a text, to have a narrative that presents an invented language, well, for linguistically inclined and interested me, that was and is truly the appreciated icing on an already most delightful and delicious cake).
And aside from the fact that I do oh so much love love love the illustrations, the both detailed and also sweetly simple and colourful renderings of imagined insect life (and really, truly, I for one have enjoyed Carson Ellis' pictorial images and colour schemes so much that I am indeed feeling a tiny bit grumpy that Du Iz Tak? has ONLY won a 2017 Caldecott Honour designation and not the actual Caldecott Medal), in this here review, I will and of course mostly be waxing poetic with regard to the presented narrative, with regard to the author's invented text, an "artificial" language that is both simple and profound, and a constructed narrative that actually (or at least this has been the case for me) has been relatively easy to figure out simply by using the context of the illustrations and basic universal language rules and facts.
Of course, that Carson Ellis has remained basically close to the general word order of the English language (and with that I mean that her presented "insect" sentences generally follow a subject-verb-predicate order) this does indeed make trying to figure out what the invented words and sentences might (or do) mean considerably easier (as there are also languages with word orders that are the inverse, where for example the direct or indirect objects actually tend to come come before the subject, or the German language, where no matter what one puts in first position, the second position in a main clause always has to be occupied by the conjugated verb), but still Du Iz Tak? is a delightfully challenging and engaging basic language concepts learning exercise tool, a wonderful and oh so much fun activity that can (due to the language of the narrative being invented and thus artificial) be used in many different ways and means to show, to practice, to engage students in a fun and unthreatening, non grammar and translation method type of language learning and teaching (and I do know one thing, that the next time, I am teaching a first year German college or university language course, I will very likely if not definitely be using Du Iz Tak? to get my students used to basic remedial grammar rules in general, something that I often and unfortunately have to do, since at the primary and secondary level, basic grammar is now often not even being taught anymore and often actually not allowed by school boards to be taught, and students thus often come into an elementary post secondary foreign language course not even knowing the differences between subject and verb, that questions have different punctuation requirements etc.).
Highly recommended is Du Iz Tak?, especially for those of us who love word and language-based riddles and games (and really, if you take your time with the text, and think back to language as a construct and if you also use the accompanying illustrations as a bit of a guide, you should be able to easily figure out all if not most of the presented story, of Carson Ellis' invented insect language).
And by the way, whilst reading Du Iz Tak? for the first time, I did have a few minor little possible comprehension issues with the fact that some of the words presented by author Carson Ellis as her invented insect tongue seem to have been gleaned verbatim from commonly used languages such as German and Danish (for example the "du" of the title, which is supposed to mean "what" in German means "you" and "tak" which is supposed to mean "that" in Carson Ellis' insect lingo is the Danish word for "thank you" and thus when I originally started perusing the invented language text of Du Iz Tak, the former did interfere a bit and somewhat distract me), but not enough to consider anything but a glowing and shining five stars for this absolute treasure and pleasure of a picture book (and I actually seriously doubt that the author is even all that aware of the fact that some of her artificial insect speak appears in languages such as German and Danish, I mean, I only noticed this because I happen to speak German and have tried to read Danish on occasion).
And aside from the fact that I do oh so much love love love the illustrations, the both detailed and also sweetly simple and colourful renderings of imagined insect life (and really, truly, I for one have enjoyed Carson Ellis' pictorial images and colour schemes so much that I am indeed feeling a tiny bit grumpy that Du Iz Tak? has ONLY won a 2017 Caldecott Honour designation and not the actual Caldecott Medal), in this here review, I will and of course mostly be waxing poetic with regard to the presented narrative, with regard to the author's invented text, an "artificial" language that is both simple and profound, and a constructed narrative that actually (or at least this has been the case for me) has been relatively easy to figure out simply by using the context of the illustrations and basic universal language rules and facts.
Of course, that Carson Ellis has remained basically close to the general word order of the English language (and with that I mean that her presented "insect" sentences generally follow a subject-verb-predicate order) this does indeed make trying to figure out what the invented words and sentences might (or do) mean considerably easier (as there are also languages with word orders that are the inverse, where for example the direct or indirect objects actually tend to come come before the subject, or the German language, where no matter what one puts in first position, the second position in a main clause always has to be occupied by the conjugated verb), but still Du Iz Tak? is a delightfully challenging and engaging basic language concepts learning exercise tool, a wonderful and oh so much fun activity that can (due to the language of the narrative being invented and thus artificial) be used in many different ways and means to show, to practice, to engage students in a fun and unthreatening, non grammar and translation method type of language learning and teaching (and I do know one thing, that the next time, I am teaching a first year German college or university language course, I will very likely if not definitely be using Du Iz Tak? to get my students used to basic remedial grammar rules in general, something that I often and unfortunately have to do, since at the primary and secondary level, basic grammar is now often not even being taught anymore and often actually not allowed by school boards to be taught, and students thus often come into an elementary post secondary foreign language course not even knowing the differences between subject and verb, that questions have different punctuation requirements etc.).
Highly recommended is Du Iz Tak?, especially for those of us who love word and language-based riddles and games (and really, if you take your time with the text, and think back to language as a construct and if you also use the accompanying illustrations as a bit of a guide, you should be able to easily figure out all if not most of the presented story, of Carson Ellis' invented insect language).
And by the way, whilst reading Du Iz Tak? for the first time, I did have a few minor little possible comprehension issues with the fact that some of the words presented by author Carson Ellis as her invented insect tongue seem to have been gleaned verbatim from commonly used languages such as German and Danish (for example the "du" of the title, which is supposed to mean "what" in German means "you" and "tak" which is supposed to mean "that" in Carson Ellis' insect lingo is the Danish word for "thank you" and thus when I originally started perusing the invented language text of Du Iz Tak, the former did interfere a bit and somewhat distract me), but not enough to consider anything but a glowing and shining five stars for this absolute treasure and pleasure of a picture book (and I actually seriously doubt that the author is even all that aware of the fact that some of her artificial insect speak appears in languages such as German and Danish, I mean, I only noticed this because I happen to speak German and have tried to read Danish on occasion).
January 26, 2022
This was an interesting book. I liked the way the art was done--two pages together creating one big picture, and each picture has something new to see--however, I wasn't much of a fan of the made-up language. There wasn't enough repetition to really figure out what it meant so I felt like all that effort was wasted. It would've been perfectly fine--even better in my opinion--as a wordless book; I ended up ignoring the words altogether about halfway through. The story told via the colorful illustrations was cute, but I got the most joy from taking note of the slight differences from page to page. I think this book is probably best for younger kids who still have a lot of imagination, but the words are too hard for them to read for themselves. I recommend this for ages 4 to 8, with it being read aloud to the younger ones.
April 12, 2018
I loved the art for this book. Both pages made up the picture which made it feel panoramic. It was very buggy and insecty which is perfect. It feels like something in bug life.
I started reading this and felt - I don't know what it's saying. Then I let go and went with it. Reading with the kids they started laughing at the silly words and we began chanting them together. They would giggle and yell out some strange bug phrase. We began saying them like the bugs might and give them characters. The story started to make some sense. Then the kids would yell out bug at random. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts, but we are speaking bug here. haha. What is that is now Du Iz Tak? at our house. It was a ton of fun reading together I think because they really took to it.
I started reading this and felt - I don't know what it's saying. Then I let go and went with it. Reading with the kids they started laughing at the silly words and we began chanting them together. They would giggle and yell out some strange bug phrase. We began saying them like the bugs might and give them characters. The story started to make some sense. Then the kids would yell out bug at random. It will be interesting to see how long this lasts, but we are speaking bug here. haha. What is that is now Du Iz Tak? at our house. It was a ton of fun reading together I think because they really took to it.
February 13, 2018
Als je op Facebook wil zien hoe het met je vrienden gaat, moet je op dit moment eerst een harnas aantrekken. Gewoon scrollen gaat misschien nog wel als je geen pantser draagt, maar dan mag je echt bijna niks lezen en ook geen filmpjes aanklikken. Zodra je gaat inzoomen heb je een harnas nodig. Artikels, meningen, filmpjes. In geen tijd word je nerveus, boos, ongerust. Ik gebruik met opzet de woorden in mineur.
Ik weet niet hoe je de voorbije weken hebt doorgebracht. Zelf was ik sinds FBM16 in oktober graag bezig met opruimen. Niet alleen met het opruimen van mijn werkkamer, maar ook van mijn hoofd. Je hebt geen idee hoe nodig dat dan is. Via Facebook ging ik groepen volgen die met evenwicht en rust en verminderen bezig zijn. Ik volg nooit blindelings. Ik wil graag weten wat The Minimalists denken, maar wat ze schrijven beschouw ik als food for thought. Ze nemen mijn leven niet over.
De voorbije week vond ik het lastiger dan ooit om evenwicht en rust te vinden. Het nieuws, mijn Facebookfeed. Ik denk niet dat ik de enige ben die over zijn schouder keek naar wat er de voorbije jaren is geweest, en daarna vooruitkeek. Ik heb veel wereldleiders aan het woord gezien. Ik hoorde ook stemmen in eigen land. Heel rustig en in balans ben ik er tot hiertoe niet van geworden.
Toen ik gisteren aan vrienden ‘Kek iz tak?’ van Carson Ellis liet zien en ook een stukje voorlas, besefte ik nog eens hoe geweldig ik het zou vinden als ik kinderen had. ‘Kek iz tak?’ is zo’n prentenboek waarmee je op een fantastische manier kunt spelen (of nee: moet spelen). Bij dit prentenboek ben je verplicht stemmetjes te doen.
Je spreekt een vreemde taal die eigenlijk niet zo vreemd is. Je bent een mot, een kever, een lieveheersbeestje. (Als tegengif voor wat er nu gebeurt is dat precies goed.) Je geeft ondertussen mee dat de seizoenen elkaar — wat er ook gebeurt — opvolgen. De natuur gaat door met leven en sterven.
Met dit boek geef je aan wie naar je luistert door dat jij niet de baas bent. Want als het winter wordt, wordt het stil. Tot er weer twee beesten bij een scheutje staan en de ene vraagt: Kek iz tak?
‘Kek iz tak?’ is uit het Engels vertaald door Imme Dros.
Deze bespreking en andere tips vindt u onder BLOG op www.bartmoeyaert.com.
Ik weet niet hoe je de voorbije weken hebt doorgebracht. Zelf was ik sinds FBM16 in oktober graag bezig met opruimen. Niet alleen met het opruimen van mijn werkkamer, maar ook van mijn hoofd. Je hebt geen idee hoe nodig dat dan is. Via Facebook ging ik groepen volgen die met evenwicht en rust en verminderen bezig zijn. Ik volg nooit blindelings. Ik wil graag weten wat The Minimalists denken, maar wat ze schrijven beschouw ik als food for thought. Ze nemen mijn leven niet over.
De voorbije week vond ik het lastiger dan ooit om evenwicht en rust te vinden. Het nieuws, mijn Facebookfeed. Ik denk niet dat ik de enige ben die over zijn schouder keek naar wat er de voorbije jaren is geweest, en daarna vooruitkeek. Ik heb veel wereldleiders aan het woord gezien. Ik hoorde ook stemmen in eigen land. Heel rustig en in balans ben ik er tot hiertoe niet van geworden.
Toen ik gisteren aan vrienden ‘Kek iz tak?’ van Carson Ellis liet zien en ook een stukje voorlas, besefte ik nog eens hoe geweldig ik het zou vinden als ik kinderen had. ‘Kek iz tak?’ is zo’n prentenboek waarmee je op een fantastische manier kunt spelen (of nee: moet spelen). Bij dit prentenboek ben je verplicht stemmetjes te doen.
Je spreekt een vreemde taal die eigenlijk niet zo vreemd is. Je bent een mot, een kever, een lieveheersbeestje. (Als tegengif voor wat er nu gebeurt is dat precies goed.) Je geeft ondertussen mee dat de seizoenen elkaar — wat er ook gebeurt — opvolgen. De natuur gaat door met leven en sterven.
Met dit boek geef je aan wie naar je luistert door dat jij niet de baas bent. Want als het winter wordt, wordt het stil. Tot er weer twee beesten bij een scheutje staan en de ene vraagt: Kek iz tak?
‘Kek iz tak?’ is uit het Engels vertaald door Imme Dros.
Deze bespreking en andere tips vindt u onder BLOG op www.bartmoeyaert.com.
February 5, 2017
Yall... I want to get it. But I don't get it.
I want to say it would make for a great pre-literacy or ESL book or something innovative like that.
I also want to say that I'm just in love with the illustrations.
But... none of those things. Maybe someone can explain this to me later.
I want to say it would make for a great pre-literacy or ESL book or something innovative like that.
I also want to say that I'm just in love with the illustrations.
But... none of those things. Maybe someone can explain this to me later.
January 19, 2018
Lovely illustrations of the insect world, a look through the seasons and into their tiny log houses and tree house lives. The made up language wasn't so enjoyable for us as it seems to be many readers.
December 12, 2017
I would say that after having now read this approximately 5,000 times I am not only an expert in the charming nonsense language Carson Ellis uses to tell the story of a community of bugs making a startling discovery that leads to wonderful adventures but also a fan of the author for life.
Du Iz Tak? has a sweet and simple premise. A flower begins to grow beside a fallen log and various adorable insects fascinated and confused by its size and ever increasing splendor ask each other "Du Iz Tak?" (what is that)? As the plant grows bigger and more beautiful they play in its leaves, build a pirate ship and a fort and defend it from predators. Finally the seasons begin to change and they say goodbye (ta ta furt!) as the flower finally droops and dies only to have a whole new crop of flowers begin to grow come spring!
There are loads of language and reading comprehension benefits for kids here. Even though you have no idea what they're saying its a simple matter to use the context clues to work things out and the gibberish is super fun to say ("gladenboot" being my personal favorite). But there's also a real sort of innocent joy to the whole thing. Ellis's illustrations are just shy of being surrealistically frightening. The bugs have very human features and limbs but there's just enough softness and clever use of charming sort of turn of the century clothes that keep things from getting downright nightmarish. The colors are wonderful to, a little muted and very earthy. There are also loads of lovely, tiny details that you only catch if you read it several times which my sons' took great pride in pointing out when they discovered them.
This is a perfect book for almost any aged child. Both my nine year old and my four year old demanded to hear it over and over again and have been shouting our various lines for a week now. I'd love to see more books told in this sweet, silly babble!
Du Iz Tak? has a sweet and simple premise. A flower begins to grow beside a fallen log and various adorable insects fascinated and confused by its size and ever increasing splendor ask each other "Du Iz Tak?" (what is that)? As the plant grows bigger and more beautiful they play in its leaves, build a pirate ship and a fort and defend it from predators. Finally the seasons begin to change and they say goodbye (ta ta furt!) as the flower finally droops and dies only to have a whole new crop of flowers begin to grow come spring!
There are loads of language and reading comprehension benefits for kids here. Even though you have no idea what they're saying its a simple matter to use the context clues to work things out and the gibberish is super fun to say ("gladenboot" being my personal favorite). But there's also a real sort of innocent joy to the whole thing. Ellis's illustrations are just shy of being surrealistically frightening. The bugs have very human features and limbs but there's just enough softness and clever use of charming sort of turn of the century clothes that keep things from getting downright nightmarish. The colors are wonderful to, a little muted and very earthy. There are also loads of lovely, tiny details that you only catch if you read it several times which my sons' took great pride in pointing out when they discovered them.
This is a perfect book for almost any aged child. Both my nine year old and my four year old demanded to hear it over and over again and have been shouting our various lines for a week now. I'd love to see more books told in this sweet, silly babble!
October 5, 2016
It's wonderful to witness something that feels truly new. Bugs with human-like faces and qualities, invented language, silent/musical interludes that serve as moments to pause and reflect. A book about discovering something new. That new something grows, is threatened, triumphs, and decays just to start again, like the seasons, like everything. So much to look at and notice when the words are unfamiliar, not just to early readers but to anyone. So much to admire and soak up when discovering something new.
October 21, 2016
My kids and I love DU IZ TAK? ! My children, ages 6 and 8, spent a long time trying to decode the bug language and now use it in their everyday conversation. I'm hearing a lot of, "Su!" and "There's a gladdenboot!" I had the privilege to meet the author in person during a book reading, and she was lovely and kind and had so many interesting insights about the process of making this gorgeous book. Definitely a story to be treasured and read over and over again.
December 9, 2017
When I was a child or 'tween I would have insisted this gets 6 stars. Art and language, characters and theme, all are marvelously enchanting and would have captivated me.
Now, well, maybe it's just me, just today. I think I'll have to try again someday, especially if you, my goodreads friends, tell me that you loved it.
Second read Dec. 17, review stands. Love the concept, art is neither ugly nor appealing imo, good for kids who are patient or need to practice same, but too hard for me right now.
Now, well, maybe it's just me, just today. I think I'll have to try again someday, especially if you, my goodreads friends, tell me that you loved it.
Second read Dec. 17, review stands. Love the concept, art is neither ugly nor appealing imo, good for kids who are patient or need to practice same, but too hard for me right now.
March 24, 2017
I’d heard a lot of buzz about Carson Ellis’s picture book DU IZ TAK? Honestly, I found it frustrating. I was DESPERATE to figure out the secret language. I’m a front-row, note-taking, turn-it-on-time kind of student and this book was a test!!! I would not fail! So… I did it. I deciphered the code. After doing my HW, I brought the book to my kindergarten enrichment class and read it with emphasis, hand gestures and lots of silly faces. The kids went WILD!!! They LOVED IT!!!! Afterwards we gave out plastic insects and the children made up their own languages. We brought out tubs of blocks and they made tree forts, stages and tunnels. OH, HOW I LOVE PRESCHOOL!!! Thank you, Carson Ellis, for creating this one-of-a-kind spellbinding, scrivadelly picture book! Ta Ta, oodas! Until tomorrow!
July 12, 2018
A book to be treasured; what a joy. Imaginative and instructive use of language, visually stunning, and a simple yet creative story. Many clever details in the illustrations. Lovely.
February 6, 2017
The invented language is delightful (it kind of reminds me of German, haha) and the illustrations work well to tell the story. I am just not a fan of the art style:
November 14, 2017
I'm not sure what to think of this book. I love the illustrations, featuring the animals represented as human like facial features. However, I became frustrated because I couldn't work out what the words meant, although the pictures were the main focus for understanding the story. I feel like I would have to re-read the book a few times and try and decipher what some of the words mean to fully understand the story. The book tells the story of the life cycle of a plant and the butterfly, ending with a butterfly coming out of the cocoon. The reader would need to have some understanding on how plants and animals grow but in terms of the language you don't need to know as you can infer your own meaning - writing your own words to the story. The story follows the themes of life cycles, growth, habitats, death and decay - lending itself to science understanding. The positioning of the illustrations helps to tell the story as the pictures start of at the bottom of the page and gradually move upwards as the plant starts growing. The colours used help to show the changes in the plant as to start with they were vibrant with lots of greens and reds and oranges but when the plant starts to die and the seasons change it turns to darkness and these vibrant colours disappear. The pictures tell most of the story as the words are written in a made up 'bug' language, therefore I feel like they do not add that much to the overall story.
October 20, 2016
I had THE BEST storytime experience reading this book. It was slow, contemplative, and the perfect amount of silly. The kids noticed details and patterns and really engaged with the story, and I had tons of fun doing my best buggy impressions. Su! Su! SU!
March 13, 2023
What a wonderful idea to write a children's book in a fictional language. Beautifully illustrated, I loved it.
December 10, 2016
First thoughts:
I love this book!! It is all wonderful strangeness, fun, language and innovation (not to mention Carson Ellis' gorgeous artwork).
Full of awesome. I will have to try this one out at a storytime with an able and willing class!
Longer review:
THIS BOOK. Du Iz Tak? is up there as one of my surprise favourites of the year. I became familiar with Carson Ellis' gorgeous illustrative work after reading her picture book Home, and poring over her illustrations for The Mysterious Benedict Society and The Wildwood Chronicles. Du Iz Tak? is an entire world- and another level- of wow. Written entirely in imagined insect-speak- beginning with the seemingly innocuous 'Du iz tak?', readers are taken on a fantastical, thrilling and wondrous journey with beautiful, elegant insects. From their discovery of a tiny shoot which then grows and grows through the seasons, the insects adapt and impress with every change- or danger- thrust upon them. With Ellis' stunning illustrations as the readers' guide, much of the delight of Du Iz Tak? resides with deciphering the language of the insects...and even more delight rests in coming to some revelations about their language!
There are so many ways that this book can be enjoyed and shared- and it really is one of those picture books that has something for all ages. Whether cherished as a work of illustrative excellence, kept as a coffee table book, as a child's foray into insects, or even used as an unexpected read aloud, Du Iz Tak? is phenomenal. You can take a look here to peak inside the book a bit more!
December 5, 2016
I had to pick this up because I'd been hearing a lot of buzz about it. Du Is Tak? is a super interesting concept book. It's the story of several bugs who see a little plant growing and want to know what it is. It's not as straightforward as all that though; Ellis wrote the book in a nonsense language, one that can be decoded by reading the pictures and looking at the context of the word usage. This would be interesting to use in storytime - one with unconventional books, like wordless books. I also think this would be great to use in a foreign language classroom or a language arts/linguistic classroom to talk about using context clues to figure out unknown words. The illustrations are also gorgeous.
December 30, 2016
The more I think about this book, and upon another re-read, I think it might be my favorite new picture book I've read this year. It's strange, and funny, and there are bugs with silly names and there's an INVENTED LANGUAGE that you have to DECIPHER! Also, the illustrations are lovely and there are lots of little things to look at and take in. What's not to love? It's not a storytime book, but it would be a perfect book to share with one or two others, pore over together, and decipher together. Loved it, highly recommend it, and have been singing its praises to everyone.
March 4, 2017
A beautiful layout and organization for a story where the words are nonsensical. It's about a blooming flower and the damselflies and other bugs and insects around the blooming flowers who take up residence. I read it aloud to my seven-year-olds who enjoyed the images including the bird swooping in, the spider creeping in, and the last few pages as they wanted to see what the resolution was.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the nonsensical words-- I actually would have preferred wordless but I get the point. I spent the most amount of time staring at the beautiful pictures.
I wasn't the biggest fan of the nonsensical words-- I actually would have preferred wordless but I get the point. I spent the most amount of time staring at the beautiful pictures.
November 11, 2016
This is a book I would really like to read with kids, because I'm not sure how they will like it. It might go over well, and others may be bored. I found myself getting frustrated with the made up words (hello ELL learners....) and not even concentrating on them, just using the illustrations.
Since this book is really carried by the illustrations, it will be interesting to see if the Caldecott committee is looking at this.
Since this book is really carried by the illustrations, it will be interesting to see if the Caldecott committee is looking at this.
March 9, 2017
The illustrations are really cute, but initially the made up language threw me off. However, my 6 year old immediately started guessing what the words translated to and the whole point of the book became obvious. She's very sure that gladdenboot means flower and voobeck either means spider or is the spider's name. She jumped right into trying to figure it out without prompting.
Really a cool book. More of an activity than just a picture book.
Really a cool book. More of an activity than just a picture book.
December 30, 2016
This may be written in a made up language, but the story is so intuitive, and the body language of the insects so expressive, that you will have no problem understanding every word. This is a book I'll be giving to all the little children in my life, both for the delightful story as well as the gentle and delightful illustrations.
October 15, 2020
This is a unique book that tells the story of animals who are amazed when they find the beginning of a flower starting to grow and try to help it all they call. The words are written in an imaginary language, but children can work out what is being said by looking at the creative illustrations. This shows the beauty of reading and power of high-quality pictures. It would also be good for the children to read the book out loud as they could practice blending these strange words and working out how to say them. For example: 'Ma Nazoot'.
We would use this book to explore the seasons and how flowers grow in science, growing our own in a school garden, window boxes or grow bags. We would look at nature as well and how we can preserve its beauty on the planet and in our daily lives.
We would use this book to explore the seasons and how flowers grow in science, growing our own in a school garden, window boxes or grow bags. We would look at nature as well and how we can preserve its beauty on the planet and in our daily lives.
June 4, 2018
I have at last managed to get hold of 'Du Iz Tak?' and I was not disappointed, what a gem! This is a vibrant story that follows a collection of bugs and insects in discovering and exploring the growth of a plant. It shows the highs and lows that come with the natural cycle, the joyful possibilities of new life and the threat emerging from the unwanted arrival of other species. Dark humour is rife throughout the story, with events unraveling unbeknown to those protecting the plant, and creating some excellent dramatic irony. The expressive illustrations are a delight, and only add to the hilarity and sense of wonder.
This story really sung to me on the basis of how creative and inventive it is. Told entirely through a made up bug language, this is just so accessible for all readers, each being able to interpret the speech as they please. New meanings surface with every read, which, to me, felt so unique and quite special. The desire to understand, analyse and place my own spin upon the language of the bugs really transported me into their position of discovery. The experience of delving into this new language draws a lovely parallel to the curiosity of the bugs, their different perceptions of the opportunities offered by the plant matching the reader's perception of the dialogue, and truly immersing me into their world.
This is book that could slide into any year group and one that I cannot wait to use.
This story really sung to me on the basis of how creative and inventive it is. Told entirely through a made up bug language, this is just so accessible for all readers, each being able to interpret the speech as they please. New meanings surface with every read, which, to me, felt so unique and quite special. The desire to understand, analyse and place my own spin upon the language of the bugs really transported me into their position of discovery. The experience of delving into this new language draws a lovely parallel to the curiosity of the bugs, their different perceptions of the opportunities offered by the plant matching the reader's perception of the dialogue, and truly immersing me into their world.
This is book that could slide into any year group and one that I cannot wait to use.
November 9, 2016
This is a beautiful picture book that tells a story of a circle of life. A tiny plant begins to grow as neighboring insects live their lives nearby. They admire the growing shoot, build a fort in it, and experience happiness and sadness through the course of the season. Written in an invented language, readers really need to focus on context to determine what's happening. This would be great to share with students to talk about making inferences, determining theme, and developing vocabulary skills.
December 3, 2018
LOVE this book! Has to now be one of my favourites. It’s cleverly illustrated and offers much scope for creative cross-curricular teaching especially through science exploring mini beasts. The book is written in a mysterious bug language that draws readers in to interpret and predict what they are discussing. Amazing!!
February 5, 2017
I might have to upgrade this one to five stars. When I first read it myself, I thought it was interesting and cute but not *amazing.* But I read it with my students and they LOST their minds over it. They loved guessing what the words meant and laughing at the funny sounds. So maybe five stars...
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