#344 of 1001 · July 10, 2021

It may well be impossible to know the internal experience of someone who is injured, unconscious, and fighting for their life. Can they hear us as we sit next to them and call their name? Can they exert their will—their spirit—their life force—from within and make the journey to recovery? Perhaps all we can do while we wait is wonder, and from just such a wondering as this springs Adam’s Smile by David McPhail. A young boy lies in bed, convalescing from an injury he received when a car struck his bicycle. Suddenly, a band of supernatural beings lassoes his bed and whisks him away into the night, a winged horse towing him through the sky to their otherworldly den. Their leader explains that the encroaching forces of darkness can only be repelled by the boy’s smile, whose light must be captured and preserved in a little box. Then the boy returns (from a dream? from an ethereal night land? from within himself?) to his room, awake and on the mend. McPhail depicts a nocturnal adventure of soft colors and surreal imagery in service to a touching story that was inspired by a true event from his life: a young boy he knew was hit by a car while riding his bicycle and lay in a coma for months. This book served its author as a way to process and make sense of the accident, and perhaps it can do the same for others in times of dire need and despair. McPhail’s personal case ends on a happy note: the boy made a full recovery. #smile #night #bicycle #bike #car #accident #bed #dream #magic #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #picturebookillustration #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks