When You Look Up - by Decur (Hardcover)

About the Book

"Lorenzo isn't happy about moving. But in his new room, he finds an old desk with what seems likes hundreds of drawers. Each even has its own smell! Deep inside the desk, he finds a book and begins to read. When he looks up, he sees all kinds of curious things. Has the book come to life? Or is it something else? This is a graphic novel about observation, imagination, and the many incredible lenses through which everyday experience might be perceived if you read."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

★ A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2020
★ Gold Medalist in the 2021 Society of Illustrators Original Art Exhibition
★ A 2021 Eisner Award Nominee for Best U.S. Edition of International Material
★ A 2021 Eisner Award Nominee for Best Painter/Multimedia Artist (interior art)

Visually stunning, tactile, and mesmerizing, this graphic novel is a debut at the summit from a self-taught Argentinian visionary.

Lorenzo isn't happy about moving. But in his new room, he finds an old desk with what seems likes hundreds of drawers. Each even has its own smell! Deep inside the desk, he finds a book and begins to read. When he looks up, he sees all kinds of curious things. Has the book come to life? Or is it something else? This is a graphic novel about observation, imagination, and the many incredible lenses through which everyday experience might be perceived if you read.

Review Quotes

"Children will pore over this moody watercolor-soaked story of an introvert's creative awakening, which contains within it a bright collage of weirdly wonderful dreams and nightmares, while adults will covet it as a work of art that speaks to their inner child. A picture book-graphic novel hybrid by the self-taught Argentine artist Guillermo Decurgez (known as Decur), translated by Chloe Garcia Roberts and also available in a Spanish-language edition, it begins on 'moving day, ' as a boy who believes the world exists only inside his cellphone finds a mysterious notebook in the secret compartment of a desk in his new room." --The New York Times

"Decur toggles deftly between Lorenzo's world and surreal episodes from the journal, the crisp, brightly colored pages crackling with circus-like energy, the somber paintings reflecting Lorenzo's slow but steady awakening." --Publishers Weekly

"When You Look Up is a powerful, brilliant book about discovering ourselves through and in stories. This is a profound, powerful, brilliant picture book about stories within stories, stories about stories, stories for stories. It's a book that takes you to your own hidden depths and urges you to become both a creator and an interpreter. It's about reaching within and reaching out." --The Indian Express

"Argentine writer and illustrator Decurgez employs a variety of artistic techniques to transport Lorenzo, and middle-grade readers, in and out of the imaginative world of the notebook. At 184 pages, this extended picture book is a visual feast, but also quietly thoughtful." --World Magazine

About the Author

Guillermo Decurgez, "Decur," was born in Rosario, Argentina in 1981. He is a self-taught cartoonist and illustrator, and the author of Merci!, Pipí cucú, Semillas 1 and Mi cajón favorito. His work has been published in the newspapers La Nación and La Posta Hoy, and in the magazines Orsai, Fierro, free lyrics, Ineditadas, and Ñ. He has also illustrated "Cents del globe 3," the board game "The Switcher," the "Mrs. Holle" stories, "El poroto mágico," "The almost perfect crime," and "Ivan, the Fool." His paintings have been exhibited in France, Spain, Chile, Bolivia, Colombia, La Rioja, Buenos Aires, and Rosario. Decur's English-language graphic novel debut, When You Look Up, will publish in 2020 from Enchanted Lion Books.

Chloe Garcia Roberts is a poet and translator from the Spanish and Chinese. She is the author of a book of poetry, The Reveal, which was published as part of Noemi Press's Akrilika Series for innovative Latino writing. Her translations include Li Shangyin's Derangements of My Contemporaries: Miscellaneous Notes (New Directions), which was awarded a PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grant, and a collected poems of Li Shangyin published in the New York Review Books / Poets series. Her translations of children's literature include Cao Wenxuan's Feather (Archipelago Books/Elsewhere Editions) which was an USBBY Outstanding International Book for 2019, and Decur's When You Look Up (Enchanted Lion) which was named a Best Children's Book of 2020 by the New York Times. Her essays, poems, and translations have appeared in the publications BOMB, Boston Review, A Public Space, Kenyon Review, Spoon River Poetry Review and Gulf Coast among others. She lives outside Boston and works as managing editor of Harvard Review.