Dude by Christopher Aslan (Illustrated by: Emily Mullock)
Reviewed by: Chris Singer
About the author:
Christopher Aslan is the award-winning author of Lilly and Lucy’s Shadow and Wenda the Wacky Wiggler. With Dude, he was inspired to create a fun and cool way for kids and adults to experience feelings – even the sometimes ignored and icky ones. Christopher loves the art of visual storytelling and extends his passion in many areas of picture book publishing – from art direction to character development, he enjoys a truly collaborative experience. When he’s not creating picture books you’ll find him writing screenplays, T.V. scripts, or developing ideas for animation.
About the illustrator:
Emily Mullock was born and raised in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia and grew up experimenting in the arts through finger painting, crayons, and mud. She graduated to other, tidier, mediums, taking art courses at UCFV and later, completing the 2D Commercial Animation program at Capilano College. Her work experience in the animation industry includes art direction, and design. Other published works include a colouring book for BC’s Children’s hospital.
About the book:
Dude, where one simple word and a cool little kid take us on a fun-filled journey through the world of feelings. You can start at the beginning or open the book to any page and see if you can guess what Dude might be feeling.
My take on the book:
We’ve all heard the saying, “A picture is worth a thousand words” but have you ever thought about a word being worth a thousand feelings? In Dude, Christopher Aslan and Emily Mullock team up to on 27 illustrations with the intention of welcoming us to the world of Dude; one word, many feelings. It is then our job as readers to figure out what Dude is feeling and even what we might feel in the same situation.
I love this book! It was so much fun to read which sure sounds a little weird since it’s only the same word on each page. Maybe I should just say how cool it was to try and guess what the Dude’s feelings were in each picture. There’s an answer key at the book for checking your answers. There’s also a neat little poem at the very end which ties everything together quite nicely.
Christopher Aslan likes to individually choose the illustrator for his books and he made a solid choice with Emily Mullock. The illustrations are brilliantly done and really make this book special.
I can see Dude being a really good asset for child therapist’s or for classroom use as well. Way back when I was a teacher, I would have used this book for writing lessons by having a student write a story about what’s going on in one of the pictures. As a dad, I’ll definitely use this book to discuss feelings and about how the same