The Boy and the Elephant

This dreamy wordless fantasy by Kate Greenaway Medalist Blackwood opens with a series of vignettes that show a pale-skinned child climbing out of bed, donning a school uniform, then setting off for a starkly rendered city school, braving sidewalk crowds and sitting alone among throngs of children at recess. After school, the child takes two bowls out to a cramped patch of trees next door to their home, where they greet a friend: a stand of interwoven trees that make up the figure of an elephant. A spread shows the trees through the seasons, the child beneath, suggesting the bond’s constancy. When a “SOLD” sign goes up in front of the grove’s lot and big white X’s mark the trees, all meant to be felled, decisive action is called for, and a middle-of-the-night outing catalyzes a miraculous landscape shift. Blackwood’s pencil and oil spreads lend softness and a sense of liveliness to the work; the child’s small, often-solitary figure and the elephant’s patient frame seem warm and tangible throughout this quiet tale of triumph over destruction. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)