posted on 26 Oct 2016

I Will Make Miracles by Susie Morgenstern illustrated by Jiang Hong Chen

This is a big, imposing book produced in an impressive landscape format with colours that sock you in the eye and just demand to be looked at. As with most picture books, the premise is deceptively simple – what might a young boy wish to be able to do if he could do anything, if he could perform miracles.

When the boy keeps being asked what he will do when he grows up, he’s already learned to give the expected mundane answers – plumber or pilot, even a ballet dancer! But he knows that really he has no idea and so he lets his imagination run wild.

Perhaps he’ll compose music that makes the waves rage, or heal the sick with vanilla milkshakes, or even, raise the dead. He’ll capture criminals, declare world peace, become a magician. Who knows, he might even be able to stop the most terrible natural disasters.

But, in the end, the biggest miracle of all is that he should learn to read and write – because without this nothing he wants to do will ever be possible.

The book however is really made to sing by the fabulous illustration by Chinese artist Jiang Hong Chen who now lives and works in Paris. He specialises in mixing traditional Chinese graphical techniques with an unorthodox use of materials such as saw dust to mix in the paints and inks he likes to use.

Several of the illustrations, consciously or unconsciously show a debt to some of the classic children's illustrators. There is certainly a homage to the great American artist, Maurice Sendak here. Two or three of the illustrations appear to refer directly to some of Sendak’s later work – especially In The Night Kitchen - and there is also more than a hint of Michael Foreman and David McKee here too.

This is a truly stunning and remarkable piece of work and the book is an artistic triumph as well as an impressive children’s story book. It was published in 2008 by Bloomsbury USA and didn’t cost a lot but now on the second hand market it wont cost you much more than £10 for a lovely hardback – astonishing for something that’s an artistic masterpiece.

Terry Potter

October 2016