Simple elements do a lot of work in Corey R. Tabor’s picture book Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saved the World), whose illustrations were “drawn on a tablet, printed out on an old laser printer, then scanned back in and colored digitally.” (Gotta love a chatty copyright page.) 

My eye was drawn first to the wire Crow is standing on — a thick horizontal line going straight across the first few spreads. It’s just above the middle of the page, giving the impression that whatever takes place atop it is happening way up high, but it’s the center of our focus. It feels a bit like a stage, and since at first we’re only seeing interactions between Crow and one other animal at a time, the whole thing has the feel of a minimalist play. 

The full-bleed spreads soon give way to sequential panels, which we notice because the wire is broken up. And then the wire’s placement starts to shift...and then we zoom out. The wire is, of course, connected to a telephone pole, and now we’re focusing just on Crow and what she’s learning via the phone. And then the pole-as-elevator is the focus, and then the wire is gone as we’re off on an adventure in a rocket, with our focus zoomed even further out, sometimes through the rocket’s porthole and sometimes looking at it from outside. And then — home-away-home — we’re back to the wire, but excitement is building now. The once placid blue background of the sky behind the wire is now a twilight purple, which darkens until the payoff: fireworks! 

Of course, the setting isn’t the only area where a lot is conveyed in simple ways. Watch our protagonist, too. See especially how much expression is conveyed via Crow’s eyes — usually one of them at a time, since we mostly view her in profile. Mysterious as she is, she doesn’t turn to face us fully head-on until the cinematic last image...and even then, she’s winking. 

Keep your eyes, also, on Tabor’s use of little lines and marks indicating movement; for instance, Hummingbird’s flight looks like fun! When Crow KAWs, her voice is indicated with black marks emanating from her beak, which match the marks that emanate from the red phone — perhaps whoever’s on the other end is speaking the same language. 

Don’t miss the secret code on the endpapers (which repeats, so never fear if some of it is concealed by the jacket flaps, as it is with my library copy). 

Will Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saves the World) carry a coveted Caldecott? It’s hard to know, but I admire the job it does of (from the Caldecott criteria) “delineation of plot, theme, characters, setting, mood or information through the pictures.” Maybe, just maybe, it’ll come down to the wire. 

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Cranky, Crabby Crow (Saves the World)]