[Many Calling Caldecott posts this season will begin with the Horn Book Magazine review of the featured book, followed by the post's author's critique.]

I often brainstorm what I’m going to write for pieces like this in my head as I’m on my way to work. After several years making the same commute, my movements have become so routine I could likely do my walk in my sleep. Turn left at the house with the gigantic sunflowers; cross at not the first, but the second Dunkin'. The route has become so ordinary that I hardly notice anything around me. 

That’s changed since reading this larger-than-life picture book by Theodore Taylor III. New (old) details have started to catch my eye now as I walk along. Murals I pass every day are suddenly brighter; spray-painted tags I had previously ignored jump off the sides of buildings as the train speeds by. Street art is everywhere and always has been. Off the Wall showed me what I’d been missing.

The review above captures the story’s plot and tone perfectly. Sam feels like an “alien” in their new town until discovering a bold display of graffiti on the side of a brick building. “It was like a language from another planet that only I could understand.” Sam’s connection with the artwork is profound and relatable. Readers can feel Sam’s joy as they dream that night; their eyes closed, blissfully floating through a night sky decorated with their name in various graffitied forms and colors. Though the original tag Sam finds is painted over, Sam soon discovers a space that welcomes this art form and opens their world up to a community of like-minded artists and friends. 

But the best part of this book isn’t just the story the author tells, but the one he shows readers.

Taylor could teach a master class in color. From the deep purple of Sam’s hair to the bursting shades of gold, green, and blue in each artists’ graffiti — the colors on each page are loud and energetic. When Sam first arrives, they stick out as the only splash of color in a pale and muted classroom. As they start to discover their passion and feel more at home in a new town, the illustrations become even more vibrant. Taylor’s comic-style illustrations have all the rich color and power-packed energy of a longer graphic novel but in just forty-eight pages. Like some of the best picture books, what’s said in the illustrations is as telling as the text itself. 

Though Taylor includes in an author’s note that his intention isn’t to have readers tagging up their city after reading his book, I am confident that it will inspire young artists to hone their skills in new ways.