Children's Book Review: How Far is Far?

Major Elements and Ideas in Alvin Tresselt’s Classic Story

Nov 4, 2009

In colorful, concrete ways, the 1964 picture book "How Far is Far?" helps children and young readers consider ideas of distance, time, togetherness, and more.

How Far is Far? concerns a young boy who asks questions about nature, the world, and the universe, conversing in an innocent way with various people, animals, and objects. At the book’s conclusion, his father comes home and lovingly carries him up to the house, bringing the boy’s mind back to more immediate concerns.

The importance of curiosity and exploration are the book’s most obvious thematic elements. But viewing Tresselt’s story as a straightforward introduction to natural concepts would do it an injustice. It is infused with the sensations that a young child experiences when he or she first stops to think about “big questions.” In this sense, it is almost like a spiritual or inspirational children’s book, although it never approaches religion as a tangible subject.

Despite its far-flung meditations, the work is equally concerned with ideas of family and safety. The protagonist’s mother and father are both presented as wise and attentive figures who will let their son wander (both physically and mentally) in search of intellectual satisfaction. But their gentle permission ultimately translates into the boy’s eagerness to rejoin his family in the shelter of home.

Employing a classic picture-book form, the book contains highly simplified phrasings which, although they allow the artwork to carry the story, nevertheless maintain a distinctive verbal richness and clarity. The poignancy associated with memories of a happy, simple childhood exists throughout the narrative. Tresselt’s fine-tuned ability to achieve a distinctive voice has no more effective showcase.

With its easy-going, question-and-answer pattern, the text builds up pleasing rhythms in which the responses take on an almost ethereal quality. They do not explain matters in any factual sense, but they offer a poetry that is itself a reward for curiosity, a way of encouraging further questioning.

Ward Brackett’s collage-like illustrations enliven each page. Far from overpowering the text, they create a visual arena in which the words seem to echo. A pleasantly shifting color palette ushers the reader through nature’s various settings (sky, grass, ocean) and the hours of a slow, beautiful day and evening.

Adults who have grown accustomed to high-tech digital imagery may find the style a bit dated. Others will enjoy being drawn back to an earlier, more hand-made approach to illustration. As for young readers and listeners who are as yet unjaded by a corporate-driven and computer-generated aesthetic, How Far is Far? is highly recommended as a bedtime, naptime, or anytime companion. One can only imagine the benefits, both short- and long-term, of its enlivening visuals and its subtle, life-affirming message.

The copyright of the article Children's Book Review: How Far is Far? in Picture Books is owned by Scott Fogdall. Permission to republish Children's Book Review: How Far is Far? in print or online must be granted by the author in writing.