Tokyo Digs a Garden

In this haunting modern-day fairy tale from newcomer Lappano, nature, long pushed out of a city, pushes back. A boy named Tokyo lives with his parents, grandfather, and cat in a white house dwarfed by crammed-together buildings. Tokyo%E2%80%99s grandfather remembers when the house %E2%80%9Clooked over hills and forest and meadows and streams,%E2%80%9D but %E2%80%9Cthe city had eaten it all up. Cities had to eat something, after all.%E2%80%9D The story takes on a magical, fable-like quality after an elderly woman gives Tokyo three seeds that %E2%80%9Cwill grow into whatever you wish.%E2%80%9D His wish recalls The World Without Us as wildflowers rapidly grow into moss, shrubs, and trees that overtake buildings, crack sidewalks, and bring wild animals to city streets. Hatanaka%E2%80%99s crisp collages revel in the vivid colors and spiky shapes of the encroaching vegetation (besides Tokyo%E2%80%99s family, humans are absent until the final spread), and while Lappano suggests the importance of balance, it%E2%80%99s clear that humans are the ones with work to do. %E2%80%9CI think,%E2%80%9D Tokyo says, looking out at a city remade by nature run rampant, %E2%80%9Cthat we will just have to get used to it.%E2%80%9D Ages 3%E2%80%937. (Mar.)