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Wild Things

 Tomi Ungerer's final book--"Nonstop"--shows us a post-apocalyptic world. Everyone has fled Earth for the moon. Everyone, but Vasco--our lonely hero.

Vasco is in continuous danger of being annihilated. He has a crafty shadow who often points in the right direction. For example, the shadow pushes Vasco around a corner--just before the entire scene explodes. ("JUST IN TIME!") 

Vasco wanders through barren landscapes; one patch of graffiti says, "DON'T HOPE: COPE." For a while, Vasco seeks shelter on a boat (it's called "NOAH")--but eventually the boat loses its battle against "shredding reefs."

Tomi Ungerer, the writer and artist, lived through traumatic events in World War II (and wrote about those events, unforgettably, in "Otto," a war tale about a teddy bear). "Nonstop" seems to be about war, and about climate change; it's about adapting to shifting realities. Don't hope. Cope.

Of course, it's transgressive to address these matters in a picture book--but Ungerer was pretty *continuously* transgressive. His final book is mysterious, and it has the narrative authority of a dream. Josh and I keep returning to it--and at least one of us is inspired by Ungerer's oddness and exuberance.



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