The Blur

“Time flies” defines parenthood in these pages from the previous collaborators, which trace a child’s maturation from babyhood to adult. Infancy, Lê writes, is “a total blur” of sleepless nights and smelly diapers for the caretakers of a child with a “supersonic voice, fantastically elastic limbs,” and other super traits. But it’s followed all too soon by toddlerhood, when the child becomes “THE BLUR”—a creature who is “ALWAYS ON THE MOVE!” Santat’s digitally enhanced watercolor and colored pencil vignettes follow an Asian-cued family through a progression of familiar signposts; the young force of unstoppable energy zooms through pool time, piano lessons, birthday parties, scouting, learning to drive, graduation, and, finally, leaving for college, with occasional moments when “time stood perfectly still.” The target audience should get a kick out of seeing adults consistently but lovingly befuddled by the youth’s growth and antics, but one suspects the real audience is parents themselves—especially those looking back from the perspective of a graduation ceremony or other milestone. Ages 3–7. (May)