Why were the Kelly's sent this parcel in the post? We will never know nor do we know who sent it but it was a perfect gift. Bob Graham has given us a wise and thought-provoking book with appeal to a very wide range of ages. Inside the parcel is a jigsaw - many of us remember spending time during those lockdown years (2020-2022) completing and then swapping jigsaws. The father has a very special watch which shows the seasons. This can be interpreted as a reference to how we marked time during lockdown rather than day by day or minute by minute. How wonderful that Dad is the family member with the patience and perseverance to keep going with the puzzle all through Spring and Summer. But alas when the puzzle is finished one piece is missing. Mum has a flashback moment where she remembers the day the rubbish was collected.
The family jump in their little red car (like the one in Home in the Rain) and head off to the paper recycling centre. But this task seems impossible. Luckily themes of optimism, small miracles and hope ooze out of this book – Katie says they WILL find the puzzle piece even though we, as readers, see the enormous pile of paper at the recycling plant. This task looks even more impossible from the way the illustration shows the tiny family dwarfed by the towering pile of papers. I love the way Katie misinterprets the phrase wishful thinking and says: ‘let’s wish’.
There are three double pages where the family hunt for the missing piece. Over these spreads, readers are given an insight in to the lives and memories of other people through an inventory of their discarded photos, magazines, newspapers, letters and tickets. These pages are worth lingering over.
Sadly, the family head home - it seems they didn't find that tiny puzzle piece - or did they? Your young reading companion will exclaim with delight because they will know something utterly wonderful before the family make their discovery.
This is a delightful, intimate and affirming family story. The end papers perfectly bookend the story when we see the jigsaw at the beginning with one missing piece and the finished puzzle at the end and this echoes the plot and the all-important happy and very satisfying ending. The jigsaw is an African sunrise - a morning scene filled with promise for a new day, and which will be enjoyed in the family's suburban lounge room with exotic animals. This puzzle itself is reminiscent of an early book by Bob Graham (Tales from the Waterhole) but there is no need for any familiarity with that book.
There are so many tiny details to explore in the illustrations – fragments that reward close inspection and revisiting: the stamps on the parcel and the stamps on the envelope containing the thank you letter; the scattered papers as the family walk away from the recycling centre; and the scene on the title page where we can see the mail delivery truck and the postbox which the family then visit at the end of the book. Make sure you tilt the cover to see the laminated overlay of puzzle pieces.
Notice the way the painting near their front door changes from a flying kangaroo to a lighthouse – I have no idea why, but I love the curiosity of this. This is one of many topics for speculation and discussion about this book.
The children have alliterative names - Kitty Kelly and Katie Kelly perfect for reading aloud. The wordless pages are brilliant – I can imagine children giggling when they read this book and see the lost piece stuck to the dog and then ending up in the garbage truck.
Notice also the repeated imagery of shoes and the soles of shoes all of which anticipate the ending when the piece comes home on Dad’s boot. My favourite page is the one where we see an image of legs as the family walk away empty handed – the body language in this illustration is so powerful. Also think about the way time is a character in this book. We have seen this idea before by Bob Graham in Silver Buttons.
Jigsaw: a puzzle in the post was an Early Childhood Children's Book Council of Australia Short listed book. I did hope with all my heart that it would WIN. This book, as with all Bob Graham books, should be added to every school and public library - here in Australia and beyond.
The CBCA judges said: The Kelly family embraces a mysterious puzzle anonymously sent to them in the post. The subplot narrates how a puzzle piece falls to the ground and goes missing while the family undertakes the long project of completing the puzzle. These parallel storylines continue throughout the book. Serendipitously, their threads do cross paths, and the reader is privy to this, while the characters are not. Themes of family, the generosity of strangers, persistence, hope, determination and serendipity are explored. Beautiful illustrations vary from small vignettes, time-lapse, and full-page double spreads. The use of framing and white backgrounds help to focus attention and are used to effect, while the language is simple and economical, yet magical. The mystery of time, and the slowness of its passage, are beautifully mirrored through the almost tragic journey that the puzzle piece takes to ‘the end of the world’, as it were. Without being didactic, Bob Graham shows that we may discover lost things, and enable things of value to return to consciousness when we have the courage to look into dark places and acknowledge our own flawed human nature.
Very strangely this book has a different title in the US:
Here is the publisher blurb: “Oh, let’s do it!” say Kitty and Katy and Mum when a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle mysteriously arrives in the post. “I have time on my hands,” agrees Dad. Starting in winter with the edges, by autumn they’re almost done, only to discover that one piece is missing. Mum is sure that it must have accidentally gone out with the rubbish, so the Kelly's pile into the car to comb through the local tip (“shouldn’t take long”). There they uncover forgotten letters, train tickets, discarded newspapers, and old photos yellow with age, but finding the missing piece is starting to seem like wishful thinking. “Let’s wish, then,” says Katy. As in all of Bob Graham’s work, the beauty here is in the details, with visual perspectives that offer a bird’s-eye view or take us underfoot, wordless sequences letting us in on a secret. Is it sheer luck – or perhaps the power of hope – that creates an ending to the story?
Our Storybox Library made a video of this book - here is a preview. Here are teachers notes and ideas for discussion from the publisher Walker Books. If you click on the label Bob Graham at the bottom of this post you will find details of heaps of his other splendid books. I'm sure the dog in this new book is really Rosie from Let's Get a Pup - do you agree?
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