LITTLE PASSENGER

A baby begins.

“Little Passenger. You are an apple…a sweet potato…a pumpkin.” As a fetus grows in size, an expectant mother compares it, week by week, to increasingly large produce—fitting analogies, given that growing a person is an act of patient creation just as growing a patch of peas or red peppers might be. Love’s dreamy images illuminate another creative process; a red-headed, pale-skinned, freckled woman sews and embroiders as her belly expands, a tomato pin cushion and a curious cat by her side. Intricate threads and borders encircle the text. Some incorporate needlework animals, while others echo the crawling vines of garden greenery. Lying on a quilt incorporating the book’s motifs, the expectant parent gazes into space, pondering. “Are you ready? The world is big. It is a big surprise. But you might like surprises.” In a rapturous final image, the newborn baby and mother gaze at each other beneath the brilliant blues and greens of that same quilt. Paying loving tribute to the intricate, intimate work of creation and the literal and figurative threads intertwined through families, this book will resonate most with expectant and new parents marveling at the profound process in which they’re engaged.

Exquisitely vibrant, a celebration of the beauty of creation in plant, craft, and human form.