Review Detail

“It all started on a Tuesday morning…” THE FOUNTAIN is set in an unnamed town with unnamed citizens. One day, a seemingly regular Tuesday morning, a hat pops out of the fountain. After that items keep showing up, popping out. The citizens don’t know why it is doing this and no one who visits can figure it out either, but the citizens aren’t too bothered. They’re enjoying the gifts given to them by the fountain.

This is a strange story, one that leans towards wacky rather than reality. It’s a fun story, one that appears to not have much of a plot or message behind it. It simply follows the life of this fountain and the town that it serves. There does seem to be an underlying theme of community, bonding together and enjoying the company around you, but it’s not explicitly stated. So it might go over some readers heads. It’s a fun story, regardless of the rather wild story. Some kids might be bothered by the ending, hoping for a more solid resolution, but most probably won’t care. The book itself seems to be more about the mystery of the fountain and how it impacts the town.

The illustrations are cute and match the tone of the book really well. It’s colorful, with bright and beautiful colors! The illustrations are clean, with nice coloring and lines, but it manages to match the magical tone of the book. There are a variety of characters shown in the book and the illustrator does a fantastic job of not making any two characters look the same. Even in scenes with lots of characters, they all look unique.

This is an absurd book. It’s weird and fun, wacky in a way that not a lot of kids books allow themselves to be sometimes. It has an underlying message about community, but it’s something that only really shines at the end of the book and not all kids will manage to grasp it. Even without the message, this a wacky book and just a genuinely good time to read.