Under the Blanket Sky

In light-tinged landscapes and dreamlike lines by debut creator Fischer, an outsize owl befriends the book’s narrating child protagonist for a season. The owl materializes with no warning: “In the morning of a summer day,/... a strange creature appeared beside me./ His feathers shivered like soft grass,/ he smelled like the sky.” The pale-skinned child, who sports black glasses and a mass of curly hair, isn’t intimidated by the enormous, silvery owl, who perches on a barrel and peers down with a kindly expression. The owl speaks, too; “This does seem like a/ very nice place,” he observes. Muted, dappled sunlight illuminates the garden setting as the child plays and the owl looks on, and Fischer captures uncanny expressions as the bird watches the child draw with sidewalk chalk, play with toy figures, and brandish a sword; later, the two nap together indoors. Over the fleeting summer they share, the child recalls afterward, “the sky would stretch out/ above us each day like a blanket.” Each soothing spread unfurls like a blanket, too, in this evocative reverie. Ages 3–7. Agent: Connor Eck, Lucinda Literary. (May)