The Museum of Everything

“When the world gets too big and too loud and too busy,” the narrating child says, “I like to look at little bits of it, one at a time.” Considering objects one by one and putting them “in a quiet place” is also what museums do, a resemblance that the child notices: “Maybe it would be called The Museum of Things I Wonder About. Because I have a lot of those.” In three-dimensional illustrations that resemble the low-tech, at-home diorama-style museum a child might make—photographed rooms constructed of cut paper with props assembled from all kinds of materials—Perkins (Wintercake) molds islands big and small, a roomful of skirts that look like bushes in blossom (“Everyone can try them on, and twirl”), a collection of shadows, and more. Ideas are developed with particular richness: after cataloging common shadows, the child considers other kinds, as when a sun-warm leaf leaves a leaf-size space in the snow: “a shadow of melting.” After this excursion through their own thoughts, the white child feels ready to return to the noisy world. Distinctive and heartfelt, the museum is observed with a poet’s eye and an inventor’s spirit. Ages 4–8. [em](May) [/em]