Hardcover, 112 pages
Published December 1st 2015 by Schwartz & Wade
Source: Library
- If you like Shaun Tan’s The Arrival, I recommend this title.
- It is a wordless picturebook depicting the isolation and loneliness of a child who lived with her parents in China.
- China has (had? does it still do?) a rule where a family can only have one child.
- Sadly.
- This little child (the protagonist) is often left home alone when her parents go out to work.
- 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.
- The kid sits around, watches TV, takes out a photo album and peruses pictures of her grandma before she gets a bright idea.
- Yep, she’s going to visit her grandma.
- Only she’s little and the world is big. She falls asleep on the bus and when she wakes up it’s empty.
- She panics and runs out.
- (Apparently this is a true event that happened to the artist.)
- 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.
- She finds friends, playmates, and relief from her loneliness.
- Her parents come home to find the house empty and a scribbled note.
- Panic ensues.
- But all’s well that ends well.
- The art is out of this world and just ‘read’ this.
- It’s gorgeous. Surreal, overwhelming, poignant.
- And the protagonist is squishy. I felt like giving her a hug.
- Put it on your TBR list!