A Publishers Weekly High-Concept Picture Book for ChildrenSelected for 2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibition"Some children’s books feel like classics the first time one encounters them. ‘What does a word think about?’ the artist and writer Julie Paschkis asks on the first double-page spread of The Wordy Book. This and other evocative questions… punctuate a dazzling array of richly colored, riveting paintings. Folkloric and elegant, this book invites slow, meditative drifting. Paschkis is the illustrator of more than 25 children’s books, and her poetic sensibility girds every page. Absorbing layers of waves, leaves and petals, boats, birds and people, all threaded with words, sustain the magic of her visual language. The whole head full of ‘maybe,’ with the word ‘yes’ repeating inside a smaller head, is a miracle of whimsy and wonder. An engaging author’s note reminds us that ‘a word can be savored for its sound and shape as well as for its meaning’ and that ‘the meaning can be fluid.’ It’s not hard to imagine young poets embracing The Wordy Book as warmly as new generations keep embracing The Little Prince."
The New York Times

STARRED REVIEW! ? "Talk about painting with words. Author/illustrator Paschkis plays with them, too, and encourages readers to do likewise. In the process, she explores the elasticity and seemingly endless possibilities of language. The vividly colored, wittily detailed, folk-style paintings on double-page spreads organically incorporate words into the artwork in wondrous, creative ways... The book makes a great springboard for creative-thinking activities in writing and art units in classroom and library programs... In a word, a feast for the eyes, brain, and artistic imagination."
Kirkus

There is an Alice in Wonderland quality to the book: The questions play with the limits of logic (What tells me more, an IF or an OR?) and with the existential restlessness of childhood (When does there become here? When does then become now?); they invite the fundamental curiosity at the heart of compassion (Do you see what I see?) and emanate a radiant love of life (What is the sum of a summer day?) consonant with the vitality of Paschkis’s paintings — this parallel language of shape and color just as rich and eloquent as the language of words, as playful and abstract as the language of mathematics.
The Marginalian

“Words are the subject of this reverie by Paschkis, who incorporates them into striking, dreamlike folk-art. In rhythmic compositions that feature birds, mammals, and humans wearing intricately patterned clothing in shades of blue, fresh greens, deep fuchsia, and dramatic black, areas of color are paved with small tiles, each one emblazoned with its own hand-lettered word… Questions lead only to more questions in this mesmerizing exploration of sound, form, and color. Back matter features an author’s note.”
Publishers Weekly