Naturally I loved the illustrations. This man has a way with pictures. The story was a tad less convincing-the kid gets struck by lightning when picking up the phone to call his long-lost dad, rendering the child deaf in his GOOD ear? Randomly meeting his grandmother in one of the largest cities in the world, even though neither had met each other before? A little too many coincidences, if you ask me. Granted, it's a children's book, and I did enjoy it overall.