Why Am I Here?

Orbeck-Nilssen and Duzakin tackled the looming fears of a boy and his grandmother in 2015’s I’m Right Here, and this outing is no less ambitious as a shaggy-haired child, whose gender is unspecified, ponders his or her place in the world. From the vantage point of a canoe, the child considers the degree to which identity is connected to place (“What if I were somewhere else.... Would I have been someone else, then?”) before imagining other possible realities, many grim and challenging. Working in pastels and pencils, Duzakin creates moody scenes of towering city skylines where the child imagines living “on the street or under a bridge,” the rocky shoals of war-torn landscapes (“What if the war never ended? Where would I go then?”), and children carrying giant boulders out of a cave (“What if I lived in a place where I had to work all day long, deep inside a mountain”). While Duzakin’s images soften the stark realities of homelessness, natural disasters, and imperiled refugees, the book’s clarion call for empathy, understanding, and compassion comes through loud and clear. Ages 5–9. (Oct.)