The Red Thread

The red thread appears endless as it winds through the wordless pages of this original, color-drenched book, but onlookers (of any age and temperament) will find themselves in a loop that they may jump in and out of at will, for every spread is a little world with its own rules, logic and dimensions. In Nygren's odd tour, an owl perches on a pencil that lays across an artist's pad; from wells of the imagination spring a collage of artists, musicians, children's book characters, beekeepers and forest nymphs; and in the corner of a page a rabbit nibbles at the moon. The path of the red thread is linear in concept but not always straight as an arrow: a man must ride on the back of a snail, on a bee and even hitchhike with a grasshopper to get to his own true love. As the thread wends its way through the pages, it inspires readers to flip back or forward, looking for ties that bind. Near the end, Winnie, Puss in Boots and Babar, among many other beloved characters, come spilling out of the bookshelf toward a child reading in bed. Nygren beckons one and all to follow (or not) his thread, and the discoveries within these pages will please and challenge both sophisticated and homespun tastes. Ages 3-up. (June)