Winter Is Here

 I'm wary when a picture book is the product of a collaboration. I think, too often, you have a celebrity "writer" with a half-baked idea, and the writer can't be bothered to attempt illustrations, so a pro is drafted to try to make a mediocre effort "sort of glittery."

But I really like two picture books by a husband/wife team, Kevin Henkes and Laura Dronzek. Henkes writes the text, and Dronzek provides the illustrations. We're all aware that Henkes could do the drawings if needed--he is one of the major gifted artists at work in picture books--so Dronzek's work doesn't feel "mercenary" to me.

Also, Henkes is not Jimmy Fallon; Henkes is actually a writer. In "Birds," he takes on a child's voice. The child remarks on large birds, small birds, green birds, a single red bird on a stripped winter tree, a bird too black to seem three-dimensional. The child describes the strangeness of seven birds on a wire--who sit, and sit, and sit.....and disappear. And the child becomes fanciful: "Think, if every bird painted the sky with its tail feather....." "Think, if birds were clouds....."

The other book I love is "Winter Is Here," a celebration of winter. Henkes seems to endow winter with human traits. "Winter is quiet--but winter is also very loud." (We see a snow-plow, a barking dog, a shovel scraping against a sidewalk.) "Winter can be soft (like falling snow) ..... But, also, winter can be hard. Autumn leaves trapped under ice are like.....stars in glass......." "Winter creeps indoors, on the dog's back, in white curls on the window, in soggy mittens on the table...." One page spells out the difficult stages of winter dressing: "Vests and zippers, coats and zippers, boots and zippers, gloves, scarves...." 

The point seems to be: Slow down and notice how the world changes over time. Remember your sense of wonder.

I'm looking forward to the Henkes/Dronzek books on summer and fall.