Author Julie Gilbert Discusses the Writing of Her New Book ‘Giant Love’
Julie Gilbert Today, we delve into the enduring relevance of the themes explored by Pulitzer Prize -winning author Edna Ferber
A panoramic illustration shows a young Black girl in a tutu pushing forward out of a pool of her own tears as if doing the breaststroke. Floating on top of the water beneath her are some of the words that have made her cry: “too big,” “cow,” “ha ha,” “moose.” “The first time I looked into a mirror,” my 10-year-old son, Eli, says, “I knew it wasn’t me.” Often the spiritual guide of our family, Eli has a center so rooted I sometimes wonder if it’s possible he is the oldest tree in the world living inside the body of a boy. Mirrors, throughout literature, are omens and traps. They are soft enough to walk through, like mist; they are riddles that shatter upon reflection; they are magic. And what they reflect back may not have anything to do with us, or if it does have to do with us it’s the hide to our seek. What did Eli see, I muse. A child’s hand where an old branch should be? On the cover of ZEBRA IN THE MIRROR (Crocodile Books, 36 pp., $18.95, ages 4 to 8) , written by Tina Arnuš Pupis and illustrated by Marta Bartolj, a bright sun’s center cheerfully exclaims, “Read this book from front to back or back to front!” What at first feels like a magic trick, or a two-for-one, reveals itself to be a potential palindrome broken by an existential crisis. When read from front to back, the book imparts an essential message about being kind to your reflection. When read from back to front, the sky gradually darkens and the story ends with Zebra staring into still waters that reflect an animal she cannot seem to love, reminding us that self-acceptance is not a straight line but a ruminative spiral. Each page is dappled with black ink, as if Zebra’s stripes have permeated the air of the grasslands she grazes, because don’t landscapes reflect the beings that inhabit them? When a bride and groom are seated in front of a mirror in ONCE UPON A TIME IN PERSIA (Tate Publishing, […]
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Julie Gilbert Today, we delve into the enduring relevance of the themes explored by Pulitzer Prize -winning author Edna Ferber
The Mallorcan Joana Marcús is a young bestseller in Spain and America, writer of young adult novels with a romantic
