Another adoption-related book that was recommended by Amazon reviewers is "Over the Moon: An Adoption Tale." Like "A Quilt of Wishes," this story and its illustrations were inspired by the adoption experience of its author (and illustrator!) Karen Katz. In this case, the adoption took place in Guatemala, although the country isn’t mentioned by name.
"Once upon a time," the story begins, "a teeny-tiny baby was born." The infant beams, cradled upon the softest cloud in the middle of a golden meadow. Fireworks burst around her organically, as if all of nature is celebrating her arrival.
As you might guess from this opening, "Over the Moon" is more a fairytale than a factual account of the adoption process: the child is appears as if by magic; the parents pick her up and take her home. There are no complications or delays, nobody ever frowns, and the skies are not cloudy all day. Life is very simple and very grand. (Because of this simplicity, the story would be accessible even to very young children.)
I enjoyed the text's lyrical moments ("you grew like a flower in another lady’s tummy"), but for me, it is the illustrations that really make the story. Every page overflows with beautiful, bright colors, curves, interesting shapes and visual textures, playfully dancing images, and a sense of perspective that may owe something to medieval art (size represents not distance but importance in the story – "extras" are small, named characters are medium, and our protagonists are enormous) . The pictures are a lot of fun (and would make fun folk-style appliqué quilts).
The images do more than just accompany the text: they help us to see the parents’ joy more eloquently than any words could. On the pages where the radiant parents learn their child has been born, for instance, the mother leaps into her husband’s arms. They quite literally are floating - off the ground and over the moon! Although the artistic style is quite different, I was reminded of the way happiness lifts Chagall's lovers off their feet (cf. Romeo and Juliet or Lovers with Flowers). Here too, it seems, joy is a natural law that more than exceeds the puny laws of physics.
In these pictures, Katz, quite simply, has captured the essence of joy.
2 comments:
I plan to make my life story book very simple like this, and then (since I am doing in in Word) add to it and let it grow naturally as our child gets older. I can edit and add to it whenever I like, then print it in colour and laminate it so that she can eat it, bathe with it, whatever, but it's still available forever.
I think this is a big advantage over scrapbooking.
I love the idea.
Post a Comment