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Summary
Summary
Have you seen Oliver K. Woodman? You'd know if you had--he's made of wood. And he's on a spectacular cross-country journey. Folks of all sorts guide Oliver along the way and report back in letters and postcards to his friend Uncle Ray. After all, there's a lot of road--and adventure!--between South Carolina and California.
Oliver's been spotted truckin' in Texas, riding in a Utah parade, and scaring off bears in the California redwoods. Where will he show up next? Read the letters. Follow the map. And buckle up for a road trip you'll never forget!
Author Notes
DARCY PATTISON , the author of picture books and novels for young readers, teaches writing at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock and reviews children's books for the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette . She lives in North Little Rock, Arkansas.
JOE CEPEDA is the award-winning illustrator of many popular books for children. He lives in Whittier, California.
Reviews (5)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 3-A map of the United States appears on the front endpapers of this book, and the title page shows an African-American girl sitting at a desk, writing a letter as she smiles widely. Tameka has invited her Uncle Ray, who lives in South Carolina, to visit her in California. Unable to get away, he builds a life-sized wooden man and sends it in his place. A note in Oliver's pouch asks people to help him get to his destination and to send Ray a note if they do. Their letters and postcards form the basis of this story as Oliver travels in a truck with a Brahman bull, a station wagon, and a moving van. The boldly colored, textured illustrations were made with oils over an acrylic under-painting on boards, and the unframed panoramic spreads portray the countryside and the assorted colorful characters who assist Oliver at various legs of his cross-country trek. Uncluttered paintings move viewers' eyes across the pages. Small, interesting details abound, and children will be pleased with the satisfying conclusion. A map at the back shows Oliver's route. A fresh, unusual tale.-Kathleen Simonetta, Indian Trails Public Library District, Wheeling, IL (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Part geography lesson, part cross-country travelogue, this tale begins when young Tameka writes to her Uncle Ray in Rock Hill, S.C., and invites him to visit her in Redcrest, Calif. The innovative carpenter-unable to make the trip-builds and sends in his place an enigmatic emissary. Oliver K. Woodman, a wooden figure akin to a large marionette without strings, sports a bright orange felt hat and a backpack that carries a note asking travelers to "give me a ride" and "drop a note to my friend, Raymond Johnson." Oliver makes the coast-to-coast trek "hitching rides" from truckers and three elderly sisters, joining Miss Utah in a parade and even scaring away bears in the Redwood forest. The entire tale unfolds through correspondence written in various typefaces, and occasional wordless spreads, painted in Cepeda's (What a Truly Cool World) unmistakable palette, which demonstrate the breathtaking beauty of America's varied vistas. In one, the artist depicts an insignificant-looking Oliver standing alongside a New Mexico highway with mesas and a pink sky filled with thunder clouds that seem to drift off the pages. Pattison (The River Dragon) nicely varies the voices and pacing throughout (e.g., "So when Quinn's cousin's boyfriend's aunt was leaving to visit her sick grandfather in Fort Smith, Ark., the guys loaded Mr. OK into the aunt's station wagon," an Arkansan writes), and the story's emphasis on geography (the final endpapers trace Oliver's trip) injects added interest into this warm tale that ends in a family reunion after all. Ages 5-8. (Apr.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
(Primary) Imaginative hokum that comes off, in Joe Cepeda's hands, as picture book-perfect. Of course author Darcy Pattison knew what she was doing when she concocted a tale made up entirely of postcards and letters, leaving it up to the illustrator to fill in the story line in intervening wordless spreads. Out in California, young Tameka Schwartz writes her ""favorite uncle"" Ray, in North Carolina, to come for a summer visit; Uncle Ray, tied up with carpentry jobs, responds by sending off ""my friend Oliver""--a wooden figure he hammers together and equips with a note asking for a lift and for a progress report to ""Raymond Johnson, 111 Stony Lane...."" Set a wooden figure by the roadside, jauntily hatted and holding a ""California or Bust"" sign, and what American--from folksy Tennessee farmer to Native American Miss Utah, from gregarious teens to gallivanting seniors--will not pick him up, treat him like a buddy, and keep Uncle Ray posted on his progress? Previously, Cepeda has been strong on hyperactivity; here, as Oliver travels westward, he makes the most of the wide open spaces. See Oliver, appearing hardly the size of a pin, dropped off in the New Mexico desert; see an elderly Native American, shortly after, scratch his head at the sight of him. In Cepeda country, all the characters are good-natured caricatures. See also Tameka, waiting: once, close up and quiet, in a scene of intense Fauve colors. Nappy Hair and other Cepeda larks were clever cartooning; this is virtuoso narrative illustration. You might also have noticed the bicultural name Tameka Schwartz. Yes, Mama is black, Daddy's white, and Tameka is medium brown, and another Cepeda natural. But it's Pattison's straight-faced treatment of Oliver K. Woodman's transcontinental journey in one after another true-to-type letter that creates the drama that Cepeda expertly stages. The audience, meanwhile, travels with him vicariously on a hitchhiker's dream trip--a dream, that is, for anyone but a wooden man. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
An epistolary picture book whimsically teaches geography, encouraging readers to follow the peregrinations of a life-sized wooden figure. When Tameka invites her Uncle Ray, a woodworker, to visit her in California, he responds that he can't--but he will send a wooden doll he has fashioned in his stead. Oliver is duly propped up by the side of the road to hitch a ride ("California or bust," reads his placard), a note in his backpack requesting that his conveyers send postcards back to his friend Ray. What follows is a genial romp that moves back and forth among Oliver, Ray, and Tameka, as Oliver makes his way across the country. The landscape orientation enhances sweeping full-bleed spreads; wordless double-paged openings feature Oliver against the changing American geography and alternate with postcards and letters written by his helpers to inform Ray of his progress. Cepeda's (Why Heaven Is Far Away, 2002, etc.) cheerily energetic oils vary perspective and angle with abandon, giving the story a wonderful movement. Rendered over an acrylic underpainting; the bits of color that show through the oil coat also lend individual spreads terrific energy. The genius of the interaction between illustration and Pattison's (The Wayfinder, not reviewed) deadpan postcard text is that the tension regarding Oliver--is he just a giant doll or is he "real"--is never really resolved. Pictured in Reno with a trio of gray-haired sisters from Kokomo, Oliver stands in the background by the craps table, holding up one wooden finger and looking on expressionlessly. The letter reads, "Mr. Oliver's advice was very helpful. We won $5,000!" Who knows? Readers, like Tameka and those who encounter Oliver on his way, will be happy to choose to believe. Endpapers feature bright, complementary maps of the US: the front is empty, while the back is marked by dotted lines showing Oliver's journey. All geography lessons should be this much fun. (Picture book. 5-8) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Booklist Review
K^-Gr. 3. Tameka invites Uncle Ray, who lives in South Carolina, to visit her in California. Uncle Ray writes back that he can't come, but he is sending a friend, Oliver K. Woodman, a life-size, hinged wooden man that Uncle Ray has carved. Ray puts Oliver by the road with a note asking travelers who pick him up to send postcards to Ray along the way. People are happy to oblige; postcards come from Arkansas, New Mexico, and Utah, revealing a diverse array of travelers and responses to Oliver. Oliver finally arrives, and the journey comes full circle when Tameka's family and Oliver travel (this time by air) to visit Ray. The quirky story, though whimsical and imaginative, is filled with ambiguities: Oliver is sometimes treated as an inanimate object (he's tossed in a cactus field) and sometimes as a person (he sits with families for meals), which makes for some oddly disconcerting moments, and the target audience seems unclear. It's Cepeda's paintings that save the day. Vibrant, textured, rainbow-hued, with a mostly cheerful multicultured cast, they are the highlight of the book. For large collections. --Shelle Rosenfeld