In the award-winning Indian illustrated book “A walk with Thambi” (2017), written by Lavanya Karthik and illustrated by Proiti Roy, a boy named Thambi enjoys a late afternoon walk with his dog. The art shows the dog in the lead and Thambi holding a white stick with a red tip, but the narrative never mentions that Thambi is blind. Instead, we continue as the couple listens to the sounds of the street, smells the bazaar, feels the breeze, and plays with friends. When they realize it’s dusk and they’re past curfew, they run home, eyes wide and legs (and stick) on their hips. Thambi’s mother takes charge of the muddy duo and it is eventually humorously revealed that her son is blind.
Anna Anisimova’s new chapbook takes a similar approach. When her young heroine, narrating her own story, visits the natural history museum with her father and overhears a guard complaining about a boy who walked through the exhibits “like an elephant in a china shop,” she she feels intrigued. (Although she has shown us how she navigates the world around her, she has not told us that she cannot see.) “Dad promises the gloomy person that we will be very careful. But I really want to see this elephant. Where is? “I’ve never felt one before.” From now on, an “invisible elephant” accompanies her everywhere. When her mother asks her to vacuum the carpet, “all the dust and pieces of it go up the hose, as if the vacuum cleaner is sucking up her lunch. …Oh yes, the hose is an elephant’s trunk!”
What these children can decipher may be limited, but what they appreciate and celebrate is limitless. Capturing this duality is what makes works like these last. It is up to your protagonists (and your readers) to delight in the elephant in the room or stop to consider it. The lively girls in these three new books—about the challenges of vision, hearing, and literacy—choose the former. They learn new languages, make friends, and persevere, page after page. (I dare you not to cry).
In LISTENING TO TRANQUILITY (Lantana, 32 pp., $18.99, ages 4-9), by Cassie Silva, young Jacki wants to experience everything her mother experiences, even when her mother loses her hearing. She also wants to help her mother continue to experience the things she herself experiences. Inspired by her own childhood, Silva’s narrative is honest and compassionate, and Frances Ives’ illustrations enhance that authenticity. The climax occurs two-thirds of the way through the book on a double page spread, with mother and daughter sitting at opposite ends of a classroom full of singing children, each pointing fingers at the other. Forget the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel; These are the two fingers that define how far the human mind can go.
Silva’s touch is light, from sharing her story to educating readers about sign language. Hand lettering in several illustrations helps readers follow the dialogue. “Listening to the Quiet” celebrates the community that surrounds Jacki and her mother, and tells us (with a finger pointing) that loving others is the loudest language of all.
CHARCOAL LETTERS (Lantana, 32 pp., $18.99, ages 5-9), written by Irene Vasco, illustrated by Juan Palomino, and translated by Lawrence Schimel, is about a girl who learns to read in a community where very few, including her older sister, Gina, can do so. Desperate to decipher the love letters Gina receives in the mail, the two climb to the highest branch of a mango tree and look for O, the only letter they know. Shortly after, Mr. Velandia, the owner of the only store in town, offers to teach our narrator to read if he helps him weigh rice, beans, and corn and put them in paper bags. Vasco’s words and Palomino’s dazzling illustrations, full of movement and color, create a story of blossoming. Girls become women; letters become words; a people becomes literate.
In his final note, Vasco describes “interweaving” memories, colonial history, and oral history. His audience also consists of three parts: the book is written for children, is dedicated to librarians, and honors the women of the town of Palenque in Colombia. It is a powerful read for parents and children whose upbringings are radically different.
Anisimova mentioned above THE INVISIBLE ELEPHANT (Restless Books, 112 pp., $22, ages 6-12), Illustrated by Yulia Sidneva and translated by Ruth Ahmedzai Kemp, it is relentlessly joyful. Four connected stories describe a friendly, mischievous girl with that nostalgic mix of curiosity and confidence in the world around her. She walks with her grandfather and her third foot (a cane he calls Speedy), sings with her mother like the birds in her garden, and goes sledding on a “whale.” In Kemp’s applause-worthy translation, the verbs empower, the descriptions tickle, and exclamation points abound. Everything is exciting and full of wonder.
While this little girl deserves the admiration of her readers, so do the adults around her: parents, teachers, and librarians who make her feel special and normal, independent and loved, silly and brave, all at the same time.
Aditi Sriram is the author of ‘Beyond the Boulevards: A Brief Biography of Pondicherry’.
