Stanley Goes for a Drive
By Craig Frazier

Chronicle Books, LLC

With the opening sentence, “Stanley set out on a drive with little on his mind,” the author creates a sense that we are about to embark on an adventure with unexpected consequences. The text is very spare—it is the illustrations that really move the story along. The illustrations are highly dramatic with their bold, highly saturated earthy colors and larger than lifesize objects and figures.

Nothing much happens in the first few pages except that the reader learns that the baking hot sun has completely dried up the land. Then, Stanley spots some cows and suddenly he has an idea.  The ending is surprising, utterly whimsical, and revealed solely through the illustrations.