Pages

Tuesday, September 22, 2020

We See This

Some of the most cherished memories of spending decades as a teacher librarian are not the moments when children finally understand you, but when you understand them.  It's those times when you step outside your thinking, refreshed by the children's thinking.  Their perspectives tend to be clear, honest, and profound.  You should never underestimate their powerful capacity for compassion, or their wonderful ability to find humor and laugh out loud with abandon.

For these reasons, among many others, children are to be cherished. We live our lives so those who come after us have a richer (and more informed) experience.  If You Come To Earth (Chronicle Books, September 15, 2020) written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall is a book for all children, of all ages.  It's inspired by children and written as a letter from a child to a visitor from outer space.  It's a love letter about this fragile, but fierce planet and its inhabitants.  It's a remarkable read.  

Dear Visitor from Outer Space,

If you come to Earth,

here's what you need to know.

You'll know Earth from the other planets around the Sun by its color, its green and blue.  It has land and water.  Usually people live on the land in spaces of all sizes, or in rare cases alone and away from anyone else.

There are a vast variety of homes, made of a vast variety of materials depending on an equal number of factors.  Living in these homes are families, members who care for each other with love.  The billions of people populating Earth come in all shapes and sizes with a vast array of abilities.  Each one is unique, thinking their own thoughts, which are sometimes mirrored on their faces.

People dress for their jobs, their everyday activities and their weather.  Our weather can be breathtakingly beautiful, nearly perfect, but it can also be terrifying with people losing their homes and worldly possessions.  People find it necessary to move from one point to another, traveling in various methods on land, in the air, or on the water.  

Our letter writer addresses the recipient by revealing they are

a kid

They attend school to become informed to make better decisions as an adult.  As adults, people do many, many different things to keep society functioning.  When not working, their methods of enjoying free time exhibit their particular passions.  Our narrator goes on to discuss the necessity of food and water and its unequal availability.  This takes us to the sea and its saltiness.

On the surface the sea looks vast and fairly empty but it is not.  It is teeming with life, as is our land and our air.  The child presents to the reader what they wish to be if they were not human.  They talk about kinds of singing, music, language, and colors.  They compare those things found in nature, and those things made by humans.  They discuss those things not seen, some lovely, and some dangerous.

In closing the letter, the kid muses how on Earth we don't always agree, we fight, but this is not the best way for us to treat each other.  We find ways to make life easier for each other; those older take care of those that are younger, until their roles are reversed.  We honor the gifts of every age. There are things we don't know, but the writer states if you (being from Outer Space) come here I will honor the invitation at the end of this letter with an open heart.


Well, Sophie Blackall, you've again put your heart and mind on the pages of a book.  You've connected us with your words through the child letter writer.  You've shown us not only where we live, but how we live.

You, with your gorgeous language and ability to place yourself in the soul of your characters, take us from the solar system and to Earth.  We journey with you and your words to communities, to homes, and the people in them living their lives as best as they can.  You communicate through this child the less than best in humans and the best in humans focusing on what is here now, and what we can do to preserve it.  You offer hope.  With your sentences, you leave room for your artwork to offer further interpretation. Here is a passage.

There are more than seven billion people on Earth.
We all have bodies.

But every body is different.


I wish you all could see the marvelous details in the open dust jacket.  There are tiny gold foil dots in the blue sky and in the pattern of planet Earth.  The child's letter spiraling upward is a pictorial presentation of all the wonder to be found by a visitor when they arrive here.  

To the left, on the back, beginning with the ISBN the letter path is wider.  It weaves upward and loops toward the sun in the upper, left-hand corner.  The end of the letter is attached to a circular spacecraft.

On the book case with the universe in its black and starry expanse are possible beings from outer space.  There are four on the back, and one that crosses the spine.  There are four others on the front.  They are all colorful and singular in their design.

On the opening and closing endpapers, Sophie Blackall presents readers with the initial beginning and ending of this story.  First, the sun is rising across a washed sky in early morning blues and purples.  Shrubs fan out on either side of a hillside patchworked in mounds of floral displays.  On the right side of the hill is a two-story home with the letter ribboning out from a lighted second-story window.  On the second set of endpapers, our Moon, full and glowing, hangs about the same house, now on the left.  The letter has been released and found a recipient in the circular spacecraft hovering above the hill in a dusky sky with remnants of the sunset rising above the hill.  The letter flowing from the house on the opening endpapers continues across the verso and title pages, surrounding the text on the first and providing a place for the text on the second.


The illustrations in this book

were rendered in chinese ink and watercolor.

Each image by Sophie Blackall shifts in size to enhance her words.  Sometimes we are looking down on the illustration or looking at a panoramic presentation.  The intricate details will have you stopping at every page.  They ask you to pause and enjoy our Earth and all it offers to us.  They invite you to grow your appreciation for all people, and the inhabitants of this planet, our home. 

Within the two-page pictures there are panels dividing the space, highlighting specific examples to expand the words.  There is also a collection of circular images, or a cluster of windows, horizontal or diagonal illustrations, or a large group of portraits, each amplifying the child's statements.  Diversity is shown repeatedly as reflected in real life.  There are single-page visuals used for direct comparisons.

One of my many, many favorite illustrations in which I gasped out loud when I saw it is a double-page picture.  It is the artwork for the child speaking about birds.  Across the two pages is the shape of a large bird.  This shape, wings in flight, body, head and beak, and tail, is brimming with all kinds of birds in flight or repose.  The penguin is speaking the words:

I can't fly!


If I had a large trunk for treasure it would be filled with books, books with special significance and certain to be classics in time, if not already.  This book, If You Come To Earth written and illustrated by Sophie Blackall, would have a place in this treasure trunk. It is stunning in every respect, words, artwork, design, and in the quality of paper.  No matter how many times you read it, you'll find something new and leave the reading with your spirits lifted.  There is a full page Author's Note at the end with Sophie Blackall speaking about her inspiration for this book, her work on this book, and what she wishes readers will take away from this title. I highly recommend this book for your personal and professional collections.

To learn more about Sophie Blackall and her body of work, please follow the link attached to her name to access her website.  Sophie Blackall has accounts on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.  At the publisher's website you can view lovely, displayed interior images.  Further images are available at the book's website along with a letter writing kit.  Sophie Blackall and this book are featured on PictureBooking and at author, reviewer, and blogger Julie Danielson's Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast.

No comments:

Post a Comment