A Garden of Creatures

Three creatures—“a little white bunny, a bunny the color of toast, and a rose-and-buttercream colored cat”—live in a garden filled with delicate flowers and grasses. But death is present, too. The toast-colored bunny dies quietly, a page turn into the story, and after the burial and a surreal dream in which their friend appears alive, the white bunny asks a series of questions: “It is hard to believe that every creature who lives must die. Why does the world work that way?” The beauty of their surroundings softens the pain of the creatures’ bewilderment as the cat replies, “We are all the same as each other because we all ask this question and wonder.” Contemplating the dream, the bunny realizes “A friend who dies hasn’t left.... They become the garden and we live in them.” In a final verdant image, Shapiro (Carol and the Pickle-Toad) visualizes the idea that the departed hold the living with a spread that shows the white bunny and the cat in their garden, all enfolded safely in the embrace of the toast-colored bunny “in a way they couldn’t quite understand.” It’s hard to find a nontraditional way of thinking about death, but Heti (Pure Colour, for adults) and Shapiro offer tranquility and solace. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Jim Rutman, Sterling Lord Literistic. Illustrator’s agent: Charlotte Sheedy, Charlotte Sheedy Literary. (May)