The Table

Bingham (The Walk) and Blevins (the Scary Tales Retold series) collaborate on this layered work about two families who live their lives around the same kitchen table. One largely unseen child, then another, narrates, their perceptions written on thin strips shown on the table’s surface. In delicate acrylic-on-paper illustrations by Caldecott Honoree Griffin, a hand or two sometimes appears, along with food and other objects. When the title opens, biscuits sit on the table, then a plate with a helping of seemingly untouched peas. That won’t do, Mama warns: “There are too many starving kids in the world.” Another page reveals the narrator’s pale-skinned hands coloring Easter eggs. Then the child’s father loses his job in the mines, and the family must move: “We all fit, except for the table.” Placed outside, the object attracts attention from a second family driving by. Now another child, hands portrayed with brown skin, narrates as a second batch of biscuits graces the surface, and a second parent cares about wasting resources: “You eating that food,” says Momma. When this narrator asks, “You think our table has a story?” readers already know it does—“a story only a table could tell.” It’s a brilliantly twined telling in which an object bears witness to the lives of two families “with parents that work hard and long hours and love each other.... Families like mine.” Creator notes conclude. Ages 4–8. Authors’ agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. (Oct.)