One Giant Leap

The out-of-this-world exploits of an intrepid explorer propel Lam’s well-paced wordless story. Suited up in boots and gloves, a brown-skinned astronaut emerges into a craggy gray landscape. The figure leaps and climbs a mountain only to tumble downward and into a crater, where the discovery of birdlike footprints leads to an encounter with a giant, splodge- patterned creature. After communicating via drawings and signs, the human is soon slipping and sliding again, this time landing at the feet of three new beings. The helmeted protagonist races to escape, snow begins falling, and paneled artwork pictures the figure trudging through difficult weather until, at last, a turned handle reveals the adventure for what it was. Careful paper cut-outs succeed in creating drama out of gesture, physical form, and the strangeness of the landscape being traversed. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)