Color Your World With Sector 7

Sector 7 by David Wiesner

There are some books (such as the Harry Potter series) in which it would be criminal to fully illustrate, for the single perspective offered by a single artist would serve only to impede the imagination of the reader. Likewise, there are some books to which words should never be set. David Wiesner's Sector 7 is one of those books to which words would only ruin its effect and take it from being an incredible feat of the imagination to a mediocre story.

I "read" Sector 7 while babysitting for three boys. It seems inaccurate to say "read." Perhaps "viewed" or "absorbed" would be better phrases. The middle child of the three is 7 and is a wonderful artist already. He draws detailed illustrated maps, portraits of people, and vibrant pictures of scenes from his imagination. For a boy who is so artistically driven, Sector 7 can be a powerful book. It's a book that shows there are many ways of being eloquent and words only sometimes factor in. Indeed, a child can create a whole new world with his or her art and the only limits are the ones they place.

The Story As I Saw It

Sector 7 tells a story without words. It tells its story with detailed paintings of expressive characters and events. It almost seems like cheating to use words to describe the story here, but I am artistically challenged when it comes to drawing anything but the most basic of stick figures. The paintings show a group of children on a field trip to the Empire State Building. Our protagonist is a boy with a red hat, mittens, and scarf. While he is wandering around the observatory deck, he meets a cloud and begins playing pranks and games with him.

We watch as a friendship grows and the cloud picks the boy up and takes him into the sky to a cloud factory-Sector 7. This is where all the clouds are told what shape to assume and where to fly. There is a cloud dispatch center that lists on a train-like schedule the types of clouds that should be arriving and departing. The clouds are excited to see our red-clad hero arrive and sneak him past the dispatch center where dour-faced adults dressed in blue uniforms are issuing orders.

The clouds are disgruntled and bored with their assignments. The dispatchers give them blueprint drawings showing them what rounded fluffs they should assume. But they want to be more creative-to really show their stuff. So the boy makes new drawings for them. He takes their assignment sheets and replaces them with drawings of fancy fish, starfish, and octopi. Soon, to the frustration of the dispatchers, the sky is filled with an aquarium of deep sea creatures and much happier clouds. The dispatchers find the boy and send him back to the Empire State Building on the back of the cloud. But a new friendship has been formed, and the cloud stays with the boy. That night in a room softly lit by a fish tank, the boy cuddles in his cloud and sleeps in his arms floating in mid-air.

As You See It

Now that I've given you that plot summary, let me share with you the magic of the book. You may see a totally different story. The paintings are rich in detail and there are many different angles the story could take. For me, it is ultimately a story of empowerment, a story of a boy who made the world more interesting and the lives of his friends less dreary through his creative ability.

For you, the story might be one of friendship, or adventure, or of anti-industrialism. There are so many things that can be read into the paintings that it is a book worth visiting again and again. There is a mood and a tone that is set by the colors and the facial expressions, but the details of the story will be solely what you read into it.

The Illustrator

David Wiesner's first book that he did on his own (he had previously illustrated other people's books) was Freefall and it earned him a Caldecott Honor Medal in 1989. In 1992 He won another Caldecott Medal for his book Tuesday. He's written a total of seven books either on his own or with his wife Kim Kahng, and illustrated more than 18 books. He's even illustrated materials for a multimedia CD-ROM.

I encourage you to check out Wiesner's work and to dream about the way you can color your world.