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Looking for Smile by Ellen Tarlow7/6/2023 ![]() ![]() In the song, Smith meets a donkey on the road. The print version of a knee-slapping cumulative ditty. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-19.6-inch double-page spreads viewed at 57% of actual size.) At long last, Smile appears on Bear’s face. As they fill the forest with song, something stirs deep within Bear. ![]() They share the comfortable silence of confidants-until Bird begins to sing, softly at first, then louder as Bear hums in harmony. Bear shares his sorrow, and Bird sits alongside him. As hope fades, Bird swoops in and asks what’s wrong. Bear slurps a pawful of honey as a last resort still, Smile doesn’t return. Rabbit notices something is amiss and suggests Bear seek Smile in his favorite places Bear searches everywhere, to no avail. ![]() Amid Bear’s gloomy landscape, a few objects retain their true colors, but the rest of the world is subsumed by a deep blue malaise. One morning-without warning, without reason-Bear finds himself alone. All is clearly well-but, as the world has a habit of reminding us, great difficulties sometimes arrive abruptly. Suffused with a solar glow, vibrant illustrations undergirded by the inimitable texture of Arches paper initially exude the most wonderful warmth. They do everything together: wake, munch, roam floral fields and wooded wilderness, plunge into waterfalls, and slurp golden gobs of honey. A tenderhearted, life-affirming exploration of the depressive cycle through simple language and a rich visual vocabulary.īear and Smile seem inseparable. ![]()
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