#918 of 1001 · February 4, 2023

Barbara Lehman presents a mystical, wordless adventure that begins with the turn of a page in her endlessly fascinating The Red Book. A young girl is waking through the snowy streets of her city on the way to school. She notices a small red book lying in the snow, picks it up, and takes it with her. Later, in the warmth of her classroom, she opens it and looks at the pages. One of the illustrations appears to zoom in from high overhead to show a boy on a tropical beach. He finds an identical red book lying in the sand, picks it up, and opens it. Incredibly, his book shows him the girl in her classroom while hers shows him on the beach, creating a loop of infinite recursion. Later, the girl mounts a daring journey to find the boy by floating away on a bunch of balloons. To her chagrin, the book slips out of her hand. The boy sees it fall to the ground and begins to lose hope. However, the girl finds her way to his island after all, and they embrace happily. Meanwhile, another boy finds the dropped red book and rides off on his bicycle, perhaps to begin a new adventure. Through bright, expressive cartoon-style illustrations, Lehman injects her high-concept paranormal premise with energy and heart. #red #girl #snow #boy #island #lonely #loneliness #friend #friends #friendship #book #books #childrensbooks #beautifulbooks #picturebook #picturebooks #childrensbookillustration #childrensliterature #illustration #kidlit #kidsbooks #bookworm #booklover #booklovers #bibliophile #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #bookstagrammers #instabook #instabooks