A Long Way Away by Frank Viva Ages 3+ 40 pages Little Brown April 2013 Hardcover     A most unusual book, A Long Way Away can be read from the back or from the front—it works either way! Frank Viva created this picture book as a single, continuous twenty-six foot long piece of art using Adobe illustrator. Then the lengthy masterpiece was divided into two-page spreads that would accommodate this book format. Start at one end of the book and you are underwater. As you flip the pages, you begin your ascent from the deep and see numerous sea creatures, human divers, a submarine, and even some submerged trash. When you reach the surface, there’s a boat, seagulls, and even a seaside village. But your journey isn’t over yet. Continuing skyward, you pass a helicopter, jetliner, an orbiting satellite and even some planets. There’s not much text here, and what there is pretty much consists of single words and a few expressions. But you’ll get the idea that this is a rather fanciful, serendipitous journey of discovery, and it’s what the reader makes of it that is perhaps most important. Quite honestly, some youngsters will find no point to this book, but there will be others who will love it and want to look at it over and over again. It may be a tricky call to figure out exactly whom A Long Way Away will appeal to.     web reviews   Bob Walch/2013 for curled up with a good kid's book   For grown-up fiction, nonfiction and speculative fiction book reviews, visit our sister site Curled Up With a Good Book (www.curledup.com)