The Boy With Eyes The Size of Miami Football Stadium

The Boy with Eyes the Size of Miami Football Stadium by Andrew Gilmore is an innovative and very funny take on traditional children's picture books. The story itself is about a little boy, named Kevin Eckleburg - who is having a very bad Saturday - forced to do chores while other children play - but when his parents take him to a football game things start to look up. That is until he feels a peculiar twinge in the whites of his eyes... Without giving too much away; his eyeballs inflate to gigantic proportions and a rag-tag group of brave, and loving, toys come to his aid. 

My favourite part of the story comes right at the very beginning when Kevin is described as a 'soggy cloth'. Absolutely fantastic. It was such a strange, brash, and unlikely description. It threw me completely offguard and was the first clue that this was going to be anything but a conventional children's story. 

In fact, this book reminds me of two books from youth; the first being 'The Oddkins' (1988) by Dean Koontz, which I read as a child, and 'The Melancholy Death of Oyster Boy and Other Stories' (1997) by Tim Burton which I read many years later as a teenager. Both of the books embody a darker element onto the typical children's fable that widens the books audience, meaning older readers derive pleasure from it too, which is why this one was so difficult to suss out at first.

Another part that stuck with me was when the Grim Reaper was introduced as a 'moody individual, one-time dance champion' to then see him pictured wearing, what looks like, a spandex (or leather) skin-tight black suit. Instantly his voice became that of the Goblin King from 1986 classic family film; Labyrinth. Though perhaps this is just me. The bright, acryllic illustrations were done by Gilmore himself and were inspired by paintings by Clive Barker and drawings by Tim Burton.

The Boy with Eyes the Size of Miami Football Stadium is available from Amazon and through iBookstore, and can be read on mobile phones and Kindle Fire through many free apps. Personally, I think the story would be better received as a paper copy, rather than on a technical device, as then the reader can enjoy it in full; with pictures alongside the words.

Andrew Gilmore is an writer and artist based in Manchester. His fine art has been shown at venues around the UK including The Cornerhouse. While his illustrations have featured in magazines and been used by bands. His first horror novel Gate will be published this autumn.