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Peter Sís presenting the Dalai Lama
with a copy of the book

This is not a book that's easy to describe. Each element folds into the other and blends, then changing shape, like a kaleidoscope. Impeccably designed and beautifully made, the book has a dreamlike quality that will keep readers of many ages coming back to find more in its pages.

--Booklist

A gauzy, translucent jacket printed with a faint, seductive map covers a full-color painting of a maze with a mountainous city at its heart. An apt invitation indeed to this mystical, mysterious picture book, which tells of the artist's father's journey to Tibet in the 1950's, the stories he told upon his return, and the adult Peter's response to his father's diaries of the trip.

--Horn Book

The luminous colors of the artwork, the panoramas of Tibetan topography and the meticulous intermingling of captivating details and the mystical aspects of Tibetan culture make this an extraordinary volume that will appeal to readers of all ages.

--Publishers Weekly

Adults will see the book as a way to introduce children to the geography, culture, and religion of Tibet. Attentive young people will be drawn to puzzle out the meaning of the stories and pictures. Art-conscious readers of all ages will appreciate the author's groundbreaking, creative use of the picture-book format in ways that challenge both eye and mind.

--School Library Journal

Priceless, extraordinary work. I had no idea there was such an exquisite thing as this that existed on earth.

--Robert Thurman, author of Inner Revolution

A book full of miracles. My eight year old son and I read it together and I cannot say who liked it more. We were both riveted and astonished, eagerly turning page after page with increasing admiration. Tibet came pouring off the pages at us, a cascade of color, magic and mystery that ran straight to our hearts. "Let's read it again, Daddy," my son cried when we finished. This is a book we'll be reading together for a long time, and one I hope he will read with his own children all the more.

--Mark Epstein M.D., author of
Thoughts Without a Thinker

A work of art from cover to cover, this is a book of rare quality.

--Scientific American

Magnificent ... original ... exquisite ... Sís manages to tell the relatively complicated story of Galileo in such a simple, straightforward way, accompanied by some of the most gorgeous illustrations imaginable ... As a result of the interplay between the main and secondary text, and the artistry of the pictures, Starry Messenger possesses a richness and density that are likely to enchant children and adults alike.

--The New York Times Book Review

A glory and a marvel ... The Czech-born Sís has written and illustrated about a dozen books of extraordinary beauty, profundity and complexity.

--The Boston Sunday Globe

A biography, philosophy and art lesson all in one book? ... The story reads like a fairy tale, the ideas presented give rise to deep thoughts and the beauty of the illustrations demands close attention.

--Roanoke Times

This elegant book [is in] a league of its own.

--Orlando Sentinel

A work that is both dark and radiant, brilliantly clear and utterly mysterious. Like its title, borrowed from that of Galileo's 161 0 manuscript, this book is itself a "starry messenger" of Sís's incomparable imaginative originality.

-- Washington Post Book World

An original ... Sís celebrates the life, ideas, and genius of Galileo in a picture book that achieves a brilliance of its own.

-- Booklist (staffed review)

The fairy-tale capital [Prague] has found its artist in Peter Sís. His brilliant homage to his hometown is at once charming and grave, filled with countless nuances and details that only a loving eye will notice.

-- The New York Times Book Review
(1994 Best Illustrated Book)

No one can see memory, of course, but if we could, I suspect it would be as magical and mesmerizing as the images of Prague which ... Peter Sís has created ... The late Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, who edited this book shortly before her death, called Sís "a genius." Few who see this book will disagree.

-- Los Angeles Times Book Review

With his stunning artwork and resonant enigmatic prose, Sís fashions an entrancing, mystical allegory . . . A treasure.

-- Publisher's Weekly (starred review)

An astonishingly multilayered labyrinth of history, mischief, beauty, and personal memory ... this [is] picture book as history lesson, travelogue, and memoir.

--Hungry Mind Review

Sís' pictures are haunting, reminiscent by turns of Piranesi, Ernst and other masters of the slightly bizarre.

-- The Washington Post Book World

Reminiscent of M. C. Escher in their intricacy, of Max Ernst in their frequent surrealism, of well, of Peter Sís in their beauty. And that's just at first glance. With each viewing, more and more appears in the painting. It's not optical illusion. It's art.

--The Mobile Press Register

This aching story of love and loss is a work of genius. Adults who close themselves off from it ... will miss a transforming experience.

-- Minneapolis Star Tribune

Exquisite fine-line drawings, with subtle washes ... A highly original and personal picture book.

--Booklist

An immaculately conjured-up vision.

--Milwaukee Journal

A Kafkaesque work that is subtle and emotionally powerful.

-- Entertainment Weekly

The pictures contain marvelous surprises.

--USA Today

A personal journey that is multilayered with images, memories, and pictures ... with visual and textual subtleties interconnecting with cultural and historical ties.

-- School Library Journal

Sís ... builds the brief, poetic text from snippets of childhood remembrance, conjuring a highly personal image of the city, and a magical one. As always, his crabbed line drawings are a treasure hunt that slowly reveal their many pleasures.

-- Kirkus Reviews (pointer review)

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