Five magnificent spreads make up this book, which falls almost completely over the line from fabulous pop-up to artist book. Until the very last, the entire work is in white paper engineering with occasional transparent inclusions and the silver trail of the title; its brief rhymed text is also in silver. The words follow a small snail through its day, from roots and leaf on the forest floor to a pond at sunset. Pelham lays the verse out on a paper wheel that must be turned to be read in its entirety. A tree stump with a mouse beneath, bird and animal tracks, a beetle, mushroom and fern, are all beautifully articulated. The final, amazing spread boasts a dragonfly and moss roses as well as a silvery pond in which readers can see their own reflections as well as the snail’s. The thoughts of the snail, “the joy of life at journey’s end,” encapsulate the text’s longing for something more profound than itself. Hard to read, and even to see, for elders, and probably too fragile for library use, it’s still quite an astonishing work. (Novelty. 7-12)
