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Fr. 22.90
Hiroshi Osada, Ryoji Arai
Almost Nothing, Yet Everything - A Book about Water
English · Hardback
Will be released 23.11.2021
Description
Existing in myriad forms, containing multitudes in its reflection, and coursing through each and every one of us, water sustains the world around us-and life itself.
About the author
Hiroshi Osada debuted as a poet with This Journey. In 2000, his first collaboration with Ryōji Arai, A Forest Picture Book, earned the Kōdansha Publishing Culture Award for Children’s Literature.
Ryōji Arai was born in Yamagata, Japan, in 1956. He has an illustrative style all of his own: bold, mischievous and unpredictable. Arai studied art at Nippon University. His art is at once genuine and truly poetic, encouraging children to paint and to tell their own stories. He took the Japanese picture-book world by storm in the 1990s. Since then, he has one multiple awards, including the international Astrid Lindgren Memorial Award in 2005.
David Boyd is Assistant Professor of Japanese at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte. His translations have appeared in Monkey Business International, Granta, and Words Without Borders, among other publications.
Summary
Existing in myriad forms, containing multitudes in its reflection, and coursing through each and every one of us, water sustains the world around us—and life itself.A USBBY Outstanding International Book of 2022
Selected by the New York Post as a 2022 Book to Buy for Everyone on Your Gift List
Artist Ryōji Arai and poet Hiroshi Osada, the Japanese team behind critically acclaimed Every Color of Light, offer up another meditation on the natural world in this ode to water. A lyrical moment between parent and child in a boat on a river unfolds into an examination of the water that surrounds them, and the nature and life sustained by it: "It’s only oxygen and hydrogen. Simple as could be, and yet nothing means more to life as we know it."
Arai's lush art and Osada's evocative poetry, beautifully translated from Japanese by David Boyd, work together to enchant readers and refresh their spirit, opening their eyes to the wonders of water, the universe, and life.
Additional text
★ “In a spare text, this Japanese import explores the functions, properties, and inherent contradictions of water. Two small humans leave home and set out in a rowboat. Water, reads the narration of this follow-up to Every Color of Light (2020), is ‘only oxygen and hydrogen, simple as can be,’ yet it sustains life. This statement is accompanied by a full-bleed spread in which readers see the two humans row along a wave of stars next to the Earth. Water, however, is also paradoxical in nature: ‘It has no color, but can be any color,’ for instance. It has no shape but can take on various shapes, and you can touch it but not actually hold it. The musings are sometimes metaphorical (‘like the mother of us all, it creates life’) and often ethereal. In a dramatic shift in tone, the narration then states: ‘It is the pee of life.’ Here, the voice, which has hitherto spoken of you and we, shifts to a first-person-singular one, and the narrator acknowledges a child asking if water is the ‘pee-pee of the gods.’ (This will undoubtedly delight the youngest of readers.) Dense textures, a palette with a stunning use of light, and panoramic landscapes establish a sweeping, grandiose tone that pays its respects to Mother Nature. Resplendent yellows and rich shades of blues and greens are the stars of the show. The book closes on a metafictive note: After referencing the child who asks about gods, the narrator states on the final page: ‘And then, I wrote this poem.’ Wondrous.” —STARRED REVIEW, Kirkus
Product details
| Authors | Hiroshi Osada |
| Assisted by | Ryoji Arai (Illustration), David Boyd (Translation) |
| Publisher | Ingram Publishers Services |
| Languages | English |
| Age Recommendation | from age 6 |
| Product format | Hardback |
| Release | 23.11.2021, delayed |
| EAN | 9781592703579 |
| ISBN | 978-1-59270-357-9 |
| No. of pages | 44 |
| Illustrations | full color |
| Subjects |
Children's and young people's books
> Non-fiction books / Non-fiction picture books
JUVENILE FICTION / Concepts / Senses & Sensation, JUVENILE FICTION / People & Places / Asia, JUVENILE FICTION / Science & Nature / Weather, JUVENILE FICTION / Science & Nature / General |
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