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It may be cliche to analyze a Dr.Suess story for a children’s book review, but he was/is popular for a reason and in my opinion one of the best. He’s also a good illustrator to look at when studying or trying to create characters or creatures of our own, he’s created worlds. One book that i was never close to as a youth but have become more fond of it because of it’s use of color , space, and simplicity, is ” Oh The Places You’ll Go.”
It isn’t the shortest story, so there are many great pages to look at. Suess uses a diverse color palette throughout the scenes and pages, yet his colors stay limited in areas and the palette slowly merges with new colors, while eliminating others. Color is also used to add the effect of day and night to the pages, the sky goes dark, and the building and figures glow, crosshatched with shadows.
Also mastered in the story is the use of space throughout the villages and landscape. Perspectives go from vast to micro-mini, and creatures and characters also change, some large some small, all playing with the viewer’s eye and it willingness to get sucked into the pictures. The pages have a nice rhythm that move in sync with Suess’ well rhyming text, and the hot air balloons that seem to be taken with wind across the pages, exaggerating the time of the protagonist’s journey, along with the reader.
