Where Is Everybody?

Created by the prolific and visionary Remy Charlip, this singular picture book begins with an empty scene, asking "Where is everybody?" Gradually, Charlip introduces landscape and characters from the ground up, showing young readers that to tell a story is to build a world.Artist, writer, illustrator, director, choreographer and teacher Remy Charlip was the creator of more than 40 children’s books, including the beloved Dress Up and Let’s Have a Party and Fortunately!. Where Is Everybody? continues Charlip’s distinctive tradition of deceptively simple illustrations (the first page is blank, bearing only the words ‘Here is an empty sky’), slowly building a scene piece by piece, and eventually, a surreal narrative sure to delight readers and expand children’s ideas of what a picture book can be.

“Here is someone who transforms, embroiders, and enchants ordinary experiences into magical excursions, encouraging children to imagine and improvise for themselves.” –– Edith Cohen, volunteer, Library of Congress Children's Literature Center“This book, first published in 1957, is one that young children will love. It begins with an empty page. A small, simple drawing of a bird follows, ‘A bird flies up into the sky.’ The following 2-page spread has a bright yellow sun shining in the sky while the opposite page shows the bird flying. The illustrations are ones like young children themselves would draw: A waving line travels across two pages, the yellow sun in the top left-hand corner, the bird still flying but now there are hills. A river is added at the bottom of the next two pages – with a fish swimming at the bottom of the right-hand page. And so it goes, or rather grows, with the addition of a tree, then a forest, a road, a deer, a house, a man coming from the house to feed the deer, a boy who pets the deer. When the rain begins to fall, the pages turn gray and grayer, shrouding over all that has previously been seen until all that remains is the rain.  This book is perfect for any young child, age 2-6. I think they would request it multiple times in one sitting. Perfect for storytimes as well or lap-sits.” —Youth Services Book Review

Remy Charlip was the writer and illustrator of such beloved children’s books as Dress Up and Let’s Have a Party and Fortunately!, in addition to being an artist, choreographer, teacher, and founding member of the Merce Cunningham Dance Company. He was a graduate of Cooper Union, where he studied fine arts. Charlip viewed his wide-ranging artistic endeavors as similar in spirit, calling them all forms of “internal dance.” He wrote or illustrated dozens of children’s books, winning three New York Times Best Illustrated Books awards and a first prize for illustration at the Bologna Book Fair.