THE WHOLE HOLE STORY

A child creates adventures with a marvelous, mind-bending hole.

It begins as a hole in Zia’s pocket. As the hole grows bigger and bigger, it falls to the ground. One day, Zia falls through the hole, but since it is “an imaginary hole,” Zia isn’t scared. Zia sits at the bottom of the hole and considers what to do. She decides to make a fishing hole, and then a swimming hole, and then a watering hole, and then a hole to the other side of the Earth. Throughout her adventures, she encounters friendly animals and handy playthings, and she stays in control of events to the very end. Zia is a brave, adventurous Black girl with afro puffs and bright red overalls, and she always knows what she needs and how to get it. The story goes on at some length, but the absurdity remains entertaining as the scenes change, and the ending is surprisingly satisfying. Engaging illustrations set bright, cartoon characters against largely pastel backgrounds. The self-made adventure is reminiscent of Harold and the Purple Crayon with its unpredictable, child-controlled narrative in which imagination takes one around the world and back home again. Readers who have afro puffs themselves may give the side-eye to the line “She fell so fast, her hair fell up,” but otherwise the tale succeeds nicely.

An adventure worth sharing.