cover image Pandora

Pandora

Victoria Turnbull. Clarion, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-544-94733-7

In a landscape of rolling hills cloaked in a gentle haze, Pandora lives off civilization’s debris. She’s a lonely fox who has built herself a house atop a mound of old furniture, discarded toys, and other castoffs, all drawn in mesmerizing detail. Like the solitary hero of Marianne Dubuc’s The Lion and the Bird, she’s taken by surprise when a delicate bird falls out of the sky and into her care. A spread shows her fast asleep on the floor next to the bird’s makeshift nest in a cardboard box, her brushy tail curled protectively over it. Pandora nurses the bird back to health—it brings her twigs and flowers, “gifts from faraway lands”—but one day it doesn’t return, and she’s bereft. While she sleeps, something miraculous happens. Sprouting into life, the bird’s nest grows into an otherworldly garden, covering her room and her house with flowers and foliage—a reflection, perhaps, of the love that has grown in her heart. The bird’s return is another miracle. As an artist, Turnbull (The Sea Tiger) has two crucial gifts: the power of imagination and the ability to make emotions visible. Ages 4–7. (Apr.)