WHAT COMES AFTER THE SNOW?

How do you explain spring to someone who has only ever known snow?

Bramble is the smallest rabbit in a large family, too little to reach the branch her brothers easily hop up to. From their perch, they yell that spring will be here soon. Bramble’s never experienced the season but is eager to see it for herself. Slipping out alone one winter morning, she meets a wandering polar bear and asks him, with perfect earnestness, “Are you the spring?” What ensues is a surprisingly tender walk through the woods that leaves young Bramble feeling empowered. Rendered in graphite and colored pencil, then finished digitally, the illustrations bathe this Japanese import in deep, hushed winter whites and grays: snow-laden pine boughs brought to life through meticulous crosshatching, bare deciduous trees etched against the early morning blue and pink sky. Against this winter whiteness, the rabbit family’s warm brown fur glows with almost touchable softness, each young rabbit distinct in personality. The scale contrasts throughout feel as musical as the spare yet eloquent prose: the enormous, gentle polar bear filling an entire spread beside Bramble, who’s hardly bigger than his paw, her tiny footprints trailing across an otherwise empty expanse of snow. The Okadas, a husband-and-wife team, capture both the shifting seasons and the complicated emotions of childhood—the frustration of feeling too small, the deep satisfaction of achieving an out-of-reach goal (with help from a friend).

Utterly affecting.