A recent review by The Picture Book Review takes a good look at Here Comes Ingo and delves deep into the pleasures as well as confusion associated with the open ended creative experiences this book promotes. Here are a few selected quotes from the review which drive home the fact that art integration (in keeping with National Core Arts Standards) is truly helpful in enabling children to relate and expand on knowledge.
National Core Arts Standards are based on the artistic processes of Creating, Performing/Producing/Presenting, Responding and Connecting. This first quote "And it’s interesting because when it comes to this book, I am honestly lost. There is so much about this book that I do not understand. But what’s fun is that the kids have zero problem following through the story and that makes for a neat role-reversal where they clearly understand something way better than I do..." shows how young readers are Responding to each illustration in a direct way by taking ownership of the story thus Connecting the artwork on the page with their personal experiences and wordlview in keeping with the book's intention for the readers to switch place with the author/illustrator). The second quote "What’s also unique about this book is that I’m usually the one helming the storyline with wordless picture books, but with Here Comes Ingo my children are in charge — and it is amazing to watch my kids tell me the story. They genuinely enjoy and have a great time explaining to me what and how and why — and it is never the same experience twice..." illustrates how they are Performing/Producing/Presenting the story by selecting, analyzing and interpreting each illustration effectively Creating new meaning and new ideas as well as new artistic work/s as the third quote emphazises "Xheka says on the back of her book that, “this wordless picture book familiarizes children with figurative art collage.” And her book definitely does that. Her illustrations inspire my children and have my boys asking where the scissors are so that they can go and create their own collages. There’s an honesty and rawness about the images that makes my kids say, “I want to create, too.”