cover image So Close

So Close

Natalia Colombo. Tundra, 17.95 (24pp) ISBN 978-1-77049-207-3

This serious-minded moral tale mourns the anonymous urban lives of Mr. Duck and Mr. Rabbit, who walk wordlessly past each other every day, “on the way to work... and on the way back. Whether they’re in a hurry... whether they’re sad or happy.” Mr. Duck and Mr. Rabbit themselves are simple creatures—a rabbit with a diminutive pink nose, and a duck with a pointy orange beak. The backdrops, by contrast, are heavily worked, painted in muted colors and often striped or paneled. The animals’ world is slightly cheered by bulbous cars and stick-like bicycles, but dimmed by the unspoken feelings that make them both close their eyes in despair. It’s not until the final page that Colombo lets them meet (“What a difference... one little word could make,” she points out, as they stand beak to nose and say, “Hello”). A single page shows them sharing coffee, carpooling, walking under a single umbrella and seesawing together before the book ends. Readers may feel it’s scant compensation for all the somber pages before. Ages 4–7. (May)