The Blank Page by Alberto Blanco is an unexpected story for me. As a writer I thought it will tackle on how I could overcome my fear of starting a story. But nope. And yet, this story offers more. It's a book about a blank page, yes. More precisely, it's a children's book that teaches how paper was made. It reminds us not to waste this product that we can often easily throw or shred. And that we should use it well because we will not have an infinite supply. It offers the understanding of giving importance to things we are used to having and to look around because we are all part of a cycle. I love the line at the end that says: "Where nothing happens there is a miracle that we are not seeing." But it could have been more impactful if it also offers the readers the effect of staring into a blank page. I am rating this book 4 stars.

The simplicity of this book, but the complex message within it, it what is most appealing about this book. I really, really liked the message of the book. At first glance, it is the story of all of the processes behind how paper is made. It makes one realize how much work goes into getting a single piece of paper, and I think it would encourage children to appreciate what a process it really is. I think it will inspire them to cherish books. It was also the story of looking beyond the page, and how there are many things going on behind the scenes that you do not always see or notice at first. A message of how things are connected. I think this would be a superb read aloud for primary classrooms. While young readers can easily connect to the story and learn about all that goes into making paper, I think this message will be equally appealing for older readers. It will really encourage them to think about things more closely and see the bigger picture. The simplicity of the text and simplistic artwork mesh well together, however, I am not certain that I loved the illustrations in this book. Because of the concise and precise message in the text, and the overall message that there are bigger things that you don't always see working in this world, I think I would have preferred to see more realistic artwork. I did enjoy seeing the owl pop up throughout the book, and I think that would be an appealing activity for young readers, to look out for the owl. I would have liked to see more blank pages in a book called The Blank Page. The text was very conversational, and though provoking, and I liked that.

I appreciate how this book touches on a variety of lessons, including basic needs for survival, community, environmental awareness, and imagination. It moves through the process of making paper, including all the components that are needed for life, and in the process, shows how we are all interconnected through something so seemingly simple. Things are not always what they seem at first glance, and the author poses the idea that readers must always look deeper. This is a great introductory book for young people interested in science and the world around them.

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.

I feel this could have been better done. I liked the idea but I found both text and illustrations too "busy" conflicting in a way with the message the story wanted to convey. 
I would have loved to have loved it but unfortunately it will not be particularly memorable and the illustrations were not my cup of tea.

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.

What a magical book for children (and for adults too, really).  I read this to my 4 year old, and he absolutely loved the illustrations.  You can always tell when a book is making a child really "think" by how long they look at the pages and by following the path of his/her eyes.  Beyond looking, this book is wonderful for stimulating the imagination and working to make something out of "nothing." I also loved that this was a great introduction for children into taking care of our earth and environment.  This book feels special in the imagery and words, and is such a fun peek into the world of poetry/art for little ones.

I liked that this book asks children to see further than simply what they can physically see. It has some elements of being environmentally conscious and being aware of the resources it takes to produce a simple, every-day object- in this case a page- without being overly moralistic. I enjoyed the illustrations, especially the ones with more detail. Overall a good read that could tie in well to lessons on conservation.

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.

I believe this book is perfect for any child to read as it shows them to be conscious of the environment. I like how the author dove deep into what is behind the making of a book. This would be an amazing book to incorporate into a lesson plan when going over recycling and the affects we have in the environment. I believe the author really made it easy for children to understand how ecosystem rely on each other to work in unison. The age group I would say is pk-2nd grade I believe if it wanted to target a larger audience it would need to give more information.

This was a nice book for all ages that shows how things are interconnected, how a blank page is not just a blank page, but the tree and the soil and from there an entire world unfolds.

It was cute and short, plus a great starting point for many discussions with the little ones. Some illustrations were awesome - especially the ones on the whole page, with lots of tiny details.

I feel like this picture book could have been so much better.

I like the concept behind.

I like how this small book tries to educate about trees and their importance.

I like the idea about how things are changing regarding cutting the trees down and what we see around with all the buildings and construction. 

But I feel like this book didn't do much. 

I like the raw basic illustration.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

A thoughtful book about looking and exploring. This book poses the question of “can you see what this is?” and in those terms, what this encompasses, as a whole, as an individual, and asks you to try and explore it. I thought it was a great book about looking into something and seeing more. It is a great book for kids and to get kids to see more than just a blank page, and to get them to begin to ask themselves about the things they see and understand. It was a simple yet beautiful book. The artwork was great and added a nice touch to the already wonderful message of the book. 
* Thank you netgalley for sending me an arc in exchange for an honest review*

A simple children's book about all the work that goes into creating a book, the paper we need, the trees required, sun, and the people who make it possible. Read this on the kindle and wasn't impressed with the illustrations, however, I am interested in seeing the print version once it is released. 
(Book Pub Date: 22 Sep 2020 #TheBlankPage #NetGalley)

A very Zen look at the interconnectedness of everything, man.  I guess it was OK, but the artwork didn't float my boat and I doubt I'll remember its hushed kind of "look deeper, man, deeper!" moral.

A quick disclaimer: I don't have children, and although I was a Rainbow Guide leader for a number of years, I have never been a children's librarian. My opinion is as someone who teaches Bibliography, History of the Book, and the Artist's Book, and who collects artists' books, with a focus on commercially published artists' books.

I love this book and cannot wait to be able to lay hands on it. A core text in my collecting, writing and teaching is A Child of Books by Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston (London: Walker, 2016 and over 20 translations worldwide). Around that, I obtain other works that aim to talk about reading and books to children, so this one will fit right in. It will be a great discussion point for students - what makes a book with these aims an artist's book as opposed to a book with nice pictures? Where does the text take us? What level of harmony is there in the pictures and the text? What is the level of collaboration? (Jeffers and Winston collaborated in text and images, whereas here there is a clear division). Is there a level of didacticism? What is the role of the imagination? 

So many great ways into thinking about these issues. 

I'm putting it through as 4/5 and not 5/5 because, personally, I would dial back the message-signalling a little, and because I would like to see more blanks in a book about blank pages. However, I appreciate that I am coming to this work from a different angle from most potential purchasers (presumably people with children in the picture-book age group).