Picture Book Reflection 6

Allsburg, C. V. The Garden of Abdul Gasazi. (1979). Boston. Houghton Mifflin Company.

This delightful, Caldecott Honor, book was written and illustrated by Chris Van Allsburg. The story tells of a boy, Alan Mitz, who is asked to simply watch Miss Hester's dog, Fritz, while she is away for the afternoon. The dog sitting turns into a much greater adventure for Alan when he tries to take Fritz for his afternoon walk. Fritz was able to get away and create a chase through the Garden of Abdul Gasazi, a great magician. Unfortunately, as good as Gasazi is with magic he really hates dogs. Alan knows he must catch Fritz before he is found by Gasazi. In the end, Alan ends up with no hat, no dog, and no... duck!?

This is the second book I have read by Gasazi and, when it comes to the illustrations, it is a much different book. The illustrations are drawings but they are done in pure black and white. Allsburg does a wonderful job of using shades of black and white to create great visual images. He creates a deeper color contrasted with a white stripe on Alan's shirt to make his shirt look as though it is red and white striped. The shade also leads the reader to believe that Alan's hat matches the dark color of his shirt. The shades of black and white are done so well that you can pinpoint the exact type of dog Fritz is.


A truly wonderful book that will make your students stop and think at the end. Really creates some great questions for students. For example, was the duck really Fritz?