The River

Two creatures seek to preserve their cultures’ peace in this latest worldbuilding extravaganza from Ponti (Meeselphe), whose oversize landscape format and signature-style visuals invite total storytelling surrender. On islands that float in the Longo River live the Oolongs and the Kukichas, trading peoples who resemble bear-dog hybrids and whose peaceful lives are introduced in almost identical extended narratives. In each culture, “grandparents can, after they die, come back to life as a future grandchild,” specifying the gender they’d like to be assigned upon their rebirth. When protagonists Lu Cha, an Oolong girl raised as a boy, and Ali Roo, a Kukicha boy raised as a girl, meet, they each agree that life is both charming and chock-full. Their quietude shatters, however, when a huge, crablike monster arrives, looming across the spreads and freezing the parents into popsicle form. The creature demands “longest-life lixirs for never-dying... every meal with a dozen desserts and... to be bossless and rulefree,” and it’s up to Lu Cha and Ali Roo to maintain their senses of self, whip up the elixir, and defeat the creature. Brimming with the creator’s signature and seemingly inexhaustible love for invented language and lush surrealism, it’s a dreamlike, richly rendered work that favors a collaborative approach to life. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)