The Days Are Long, the Years Are Short

Polished woodcuts celebrate childhood from the parents’ point of view as Morton (The Great Gatsby: The Graphic Novel) presents picturesque snapshots of a day in the life of a pale-skinned family and their big yellow dog. Shot throughout with a sense of sweet chaos, life in this household of two parents and two children is shown as safe, happy, and reassuringly slow-paced (“Bananas and eggs and big cups of coffee—somehow we all get fed”). Punctuating various activities, a repeating, adult-feeling voice conveys the way time can telescope: “The days are long,/ but when I’m with you,/ I blink and the years fly by.” Wrestling a toddler into a t-shirt (“Stuck!”), morning work in the garden (“We water the plants, the mud, and the road”), and an afternoon at the beach (“Keep digging!”) are followed by a quiet trip home with sacked-out children, dinner eaten as one child leaps from a sofa, and a bedtime involving plenty of picture books (“Another day older, we made it at last”). The simple scenes paint a warm portrait of parents who treasure moments that disappear all too quickly. Ages 4–8. Agent: Alyssa Eisner Henkin, Birch Path Literary. (Mar.)