Thanks so much to NetGalley and Parallax Publishing/Plum Blossom for the digital review copy of this delightful, little book.

Okay. So if I had kids, this would be the type of book I would buy them. I would want them to read absolutely everything, but we would most definitely own this book. It takes a single object (a blank page) and traces its origins to trees and how paper is made, taking great care to constantly remind us how nothing exists in a vacuum and that we are all connected in everything we do.

I also really loved Rob Moss Wilson’s artwork. It’s a straightforward style that I often see in webcomics and that I absolutely love! Simple line work with colors that pop. I want more.

Since I don’t have kids, I’ll settle for telling my young library patrons and their parents about this one. They walk out of our library with stacks and stacks, and adding this to their pile will help them to think more globally about the stacks of books they carry out.

This one comes out on September 22, so definitely keep your eyes peeled for it at your local library or favorite indie bookseller.

I received an electronic ARC from Parallax Press through NetGalley.
The idea behind this book is interesting but the execution falls flat. The text offers information on how paper is made and all the elements involved in the process. The illustrations are different - brightly colored but cartoonish. This could be a read aloud but the structure doesn't flow well.

'The Blank Page' is a really unique and interesting children's book. Using simple, straightforward language, it explains what goes into making the paper and materials used to make the book the reader is holding. It also highlights the ways in which so many things are interconnected. This is a wonderful book!

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for providing this ARC.

I didn't like the art in "The Blank Page." The colors were bright and fun, but I wasn't a fan of the drawing style. This might be ok for nonfiction but I don't recommend it to people who enjoy fiction picture books. I was not the right audience for this one - I didn't finish it.

2.5 rounded up. Mostly I really liked the concept of this book, but the execution didn’t quite nail it for me.

I am a big fan of books (for adults and kids!) that provide a zoom in and zoom out perspective. This one follows paper and all of the people and resources required to make paper. I just wish it had done a little more and been more dynamic because I think something like this would be so great for so many parts of the classroom (an elementary Econ unit?? social studies? natural resources convos? The list goes on).

Thanks to Netgalley and the publishers for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This book would be great for fans of Zoom by Istvan Banyai. It starts with a blank page, and the idea that it isn't really empty because it's paper and paper comes from trees, which are processed in factories, that are worked in by people, who eat food that is farmed and so on. It's a clever idea and the illustrations are brilliant with lots of detail as the book progresses.

Cute book and illustrations following the process of paper being made and shows children that it is not only a "Blank Page" , but started as a tree. I love books like this because it teaches children to think about the process that goes into making products we use everyday.

The Blank Page by Alberto Blanco is a beautiful little book that presents ideas about connectivity and taking a deeper look at things. It inspires curiosity and appreciation for where things come from and has engaging pictures young readers are sure to enjoy.
Many thanks to Parallax Press, Plum Blossom, and NetGalley for the advance copy.

A good way to get children thinking about what goes into everyday items. Many things are interconnected "behind-the-scenes" and only become obvious when you begin looking for them.

A cute book going deeper into where paper comes from and how all the things are connected. The illustrations were lacking a little for me but I loved that each page built on the last. It was cool how they go deeper into how paper is made and how community is needed to do everything involved.

Thanks to netgalley, Alberto Blanco and Parallax press for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

While I understand what this book was trying to do, I found it uninspiring and rather bland.

The reader is basically asked to look behind the sheet of paper to the processes and materials that go into it, from the trees and workers to the sun and rain and the planet itself. The idea that a piece of paper contains the whole universe is, while lovely, a little abstract for a children's book.

I'm not loving the illustrations here, either. They're colourful but rather flat and basic.

My favourite line in the book is probably the last one ("Where nothing happens, there is a miracle that we are not seeing.") and despite what the blurb says, it's not even Blanco's line. Attribution is given on the copyright page.

Overall, this is a forgettable book. While the message is laudable, the execution is just plain boring.

The Blank Page is a children's book about looking deeper and appreciating the community of people and things around you. It starts by having a dialogue of nothing on the page, meanwhile it dives deeper into showing that everything has a place in this world and that everyone/everything is appreciated. Great cross-curricular for science with a focus on trees and forests and the water cycle.

I enjoyed the fact that the illustrations are simple and that new things get added on each page. I really enjoyed how the narrative goes along with the story and points things out in the illustrations that I probably wouldn't have noticed before, like the dirt and sky behind the trees.

This story begins with a page that is blank except for the words “There is nothing here.”

And the story goes on to tell the story of how even when a page might be blank, it isn’t nothing, because it is paper, and paper is indeed something even if there are no words on it at all. Something that has a story to tell of where it came from, beyond just knowing it is made from. And if paper is made from wood, how does a tree turn into paper.

This takes the reader on a journey from simple illustrations of a tree to pointing out all the things that help the tree grow. The soil, the sun, the sky, all of nature, and time all help the trees grow. And if we keep looking, we may see more trees, a forest. The clouds above that bring rain that falls in the mountains and flows downstream, fills the rivers, and rivers that bring water to the trees. In order to make paper, some of those trees need to be cut down, but thoughtful people take only what they need. At the bottom of the hill is the mill where the trees become paper. And if you follow the road you can see the city where lots of paper is used in all kinds of businesses. Beyond there, you can see the workers tending to fields where fruit, vegetables and grains come from, which also need all the same things, the rain that brings water, the sun’s rays, the earth’s soil, and clean air.

This closes with one more thing you can see when you see a blank page...”you, reading this book.”

So the next time you see a blank page, look closely… ”Because it contains the whole universe.”


Pub Date: 22 Sep 2020

Many thanks for the ARC provided by Parallax Press / Plum Blossom

#TheBlankPage #NetGalley

The Blank Page by Alberto Blanco and illustrated by Rob Moss Wilson is a children's book that explains how paper is made. He speaks about the many people that are involved and the different parts of nature that are affected or contribute to paper as well. This book is easy to understand and I like the simplistic illustrations that go with it because they don't distract from the topic but rather enhance the experience.

This is a BEAUTIFUL book. I can see this being a fantastic classroom read-aloud in the 1st and 2nd grades. It’s a science lesson, a language arts lesson, and a PEOPLE lesson with the loveliest illustrations that suck you in. I have a particular group of students in mind that I know would have picked this up to read over and over again. So engaging, so well-written, so gorgeous.

A nice picture book about paper and how it is collectively done. Pictures are very colorful, loved the tree hugging part. Text gets away from context a bit. But It is a nice book the talk about such things with kids.

The Blank Page is a cute concept about where paper is made. I liked the book but don’t think children will be that interested in it. To me it went too far.

Thank you NetGalley and Parallax Press for this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

The Blank Page is a book that shows children exactly where their paper has come from and the process it went through to become a page in their book. It makes children understand that a piece of paper is so much more than just what you can see.

When I was a child I went on a school trip to the Museum of Science and Industry (MOSI) in Manchester. Amongst many of the things that we saw and were taught was how the paper was made. They had a whole demonstration beginning with the trees and ending up with a piece of paper we each were given that was made there. I was fascinated and have never forgotten that day. This book took me straight back to that day in my mind.

The illustrations are quite basic looking but they are there just to give the reader a taste of what they can actually see on the page. They are to use their imagination for the rest of the images. The funny thing is that I first read this in a PDF file on my computer (I had an arc copy of the book), and the pages didn’t have any illustrations. I was confused but going back and reading it again I thought the idea of the book was to use your imagination to see what was happening at each stage of the paper’s life and to show that a blank page is never really blank if you use your imagination.

After reading some reviews where reviewers mentioned the illustrations I became confused. Were they talking about the illustrations that they had conjured up in their heads or was I missing something, so I downloaded a Kindle version and lo and behold the pages did have illustrations. Small ones but they were there. I actually preferred the book when I was making the story up and creating images in my head – sorry.

Overall, this is a wonderful book for making children see more than just a piece of paper, to make them understand that it doesn’t just magically appear in books, that paper is created from nature and that if they look hard enough they will see that.

This is a simple yet fantastic book that takes us through the journey of the process of creating paper. It’s not an in depth look but it shows kids how things are created with a lot of different components.