THE PAPER BRIDGE

In a mountaintop village where everything—including its population—is made of paper, residents must find the source of a mysterious wind.

Skilled in the art of kirigami (or paper folding), the denizens of Paperlee lead happy lives, fearing only the wind that blows for five and a half days each year. But one day a worryingly unseasonal wind arrives, apparently from Forestlee, the village on the neighboring mountain. Anya, a young girl who’s especially talented at kirigami, decides to find out more. She designs a paper bridge and then crosses the chasm separating the two mountains. In Forestlee, strong, solid trees hold houses that don’t bend in the wind; readers will recognize that everything here is made from cardboard. The young diplomat not only learns the cause of the new wind, but also solves the problem to everyone’s satisfaction and unites the people of both villages, who share their skills with one another. Appropriately, Ratanavanh relied on kirigami for the book’s illustrations, intricately cutting, folding, and assembling paper into three-dimensional scenes that were then photographed. Translated from French, the story reads like a parable, drawing readers into a setting like our own but ever so slightly off-kilter, while the exquisite illustrations are rife with small details for those who choose to linger. Clothing and other details cue the residents of Paperlee as East Asian, while the people of Forestlee vary in skin tone and wear Western-style dress.

A beautifully crafted world to get lost in.