cover image And What Comes After a Thousand?

And What Comes After a Thousand?

Anette Bley, . . Kane/Miller, $15.95 (32pp) ISBN 978-1-933605-27-2

Young Lisa and elderly Otto spend their days rambling around his farm. Otto always seem to have an "emergency" cookie in his pocket, knows how to make a slingshot and loves to count the stars (hence the title). Most important, he never dismisses anything the towheaded girl says; when Lisa wonders where numbers come from, Otto muses a bit and replies, "I think they're just inside of us." After Otto falls ill and dies, Lisa is angry and bereft. But with the help of Olga, who took care of Otto, Lisa comes to understand that "Otto is like numbers. He's inside of us, and that will never end." German author-artist Bley's velvety, emotionally acute pictures exude a visual poetry. She conjures a world where minds can meet across the generations without impediments. The scenes of Otto's swift decline are unsparing, but also intensely human, softened by images of poppies and the things Lisa brings to Otto (leaves, cocoons); every detail seems authentic and heartfelt. Bley plunges readers into the story without explaining whether Otto, Lisa and Olga are related, offering few details about Lisa beyond the experiences she shares with Otto. Instead, the essentials come through in landscapes of the farm and close-ups of Otto and Lisa swapping stories while gazing at the sky. Children will find much to savor in the book's radiant pictures and lyrical elusiveness. Ages 6-10. (Mar.)