Snapshot: The Only Child by Guojing

Hardcover, 112 pages
Published December 1st 2015 by Schwartz & Wade
Source: Library

1. If you like Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, I recommend this title.
2. It is a wordless picturebook depicting the isolation and loneliness of a child who lived with her parents in China.
3. China has (had? does it still do?) a rule where a family can only have one child.
4. Sadly.
5. This little child (the protagonist) is often left home alone when her parents go out to work.
6. I mean, I was totally raising my eyebrows because the kid doesn’t seem older than 6 but apparently this was a normal thing there.
7. The kid sits around, watches TV, takes out a photo album and peruses pictures of her grandma before she gets a bright idea.
8. Yep, she’s going to visit her grandma.
9. Only she’s little and the world is big. She falls asleep on the bus and when she wakes up it’s empty.
10. She panics and runs out.
11. (Apparently this is a true event that happened to the artist.)
12. She meets a moose (that is a moose right? or a deer? or an animal with horns, let’s go with that), and it takes her on an adventure in the clouds.
13. She finds friends, playmates, and relief from her loneliness.
14. Her parents come home to find the house empty and a scribbled note.
15. Panic ensues.
16. But all’s well that ends well.
17. The art is out of this world and just ‘read’ this.
18. It’s gorgeous. Surreal, overwhelming, poignant.
19. And the protagonist is squishy. I felt like giving her a hug.
20. Put it on your TBR list!