BETWEEN

An unlikely pair of arthropods discovers friendship while exploring the liminal spaces of nature’s light and rhythms.

“Between day / and night,” a moth flies by, flutteringly releasing a contrail of magical dust. “Between near / and far,” a cricket rests on a leaf, watching a waning crescent moon amid a galaxy of stars. Sometime during “hide / and seek” and “between question / and answer,” the nocturnal insects meet and quickly commence a game, with the cricket hiding “under” the foliage, the moth seeking a spot somewhere “over.” But perhaps they venture out a bit too broadly, caught between “sound // and silence.” Luckily, their moment of “lost” is brief, quickly becoming “found” and transforming them into playmates, “you and me” joyfully dancing and twirling, “now // and forever.” Walker enhances her clever, spare text with evocative illustrations presented in an overlapping tri-color palette—blue, peach, and in-between gray, softened with dotted white. Her meticulous pointillism creates invitingly soft spreads that suggest a dreamy wonderland ripe for slow exploration. Her insect protagonists are anthropomorphized just enough to capture curious, questioning, welcoming emotions they shyly, gently reveal to each other.

 An illuminating look at friendship—and how it heightens each and every moment.