Book Review: There's a Little Black Spot on the Sun Today by Sven Volker

When I saw this on *Netgalley I immediately clicked to read it. It sounded so interesting. It is a children's book but I didn't wait for my son to read it. I bypassed him and read this one by myself.

This book illustrates the lyrics of Sting's classic song King of Pain. Sven's son has been enduring a lot of pain and after hearing Sting's song Sven's son declares that he is the King of Pain.

Wow where to begin. The backstory here of Sven's son is heartbreaking for anyone to read about. The illustrations are as minimal as you can get. In fact it is all made up of triangles. But oh my god does it work. The illustration for the line about standing out in the rain is my favorite. It is just brilliant!

I don't think I'll be reading this one to my son. Just because I don't think he will understand it. He might like the illustrations but I think this topic is a bit too deep for him.

That being said I loved it! Even though at first the artwork seems amaturish once you his that picture of the rain with the silhouette of a person you realize that there is real artistry here. It actually takes some talent to create the images of the lyrics while only using triangles. Some were very abstract and it was fun figuring it out.

I'm going with 4 out of 5 stars!


*I recieved a review copy from *Netgalley in exchange for my honest opinion.