My Brother

This haunting English-language debut by Djupvik opens as a father and child narrator sit together at a breakfast table. Loose line drawings with occasional saturated color by Torseter (The Most Beautiful Story) envision the child inviting the father to go fishing, though straightforward text notes, “Father doesn’t like the fjord much anymore.” They set out, the father worrying about the narrator falling in (“Sometimes I want to fall in, I want to go down there”), and the father’s efforts at fishing result in his catching “my very own brother.” It’s an uncanny, surreal moment, the sibling shown as limp but seemingly alive. When they get him home, they bathe and revive him—though he never speaks—and put him to bed. The next morning, the brother wanders to a place in the forest where he encounters a being he once loved, and Father says “he can stay no longer.... You and I will stay.” Capturing the sense of closure and peace the brother’s visit gives the grieving family (“Now we know he exists”), this lingering work envisions a tender, deliberate farewell. Character skin tones reflect the white of the page. Ages 5–9. (Mar.)