MIRROR

This entirely original book is a strong contender to bring to a desert island, especially as it’s two books in one. Open the “books” simultaneously, in English from left to right and in Arabic from right to left. Scan the pictures and compare family life and global interdependence as the panorama of urban and rural scenes from two very different countries unfolds. Wordless, except for an introduction and an illustrator’s afterword in English and Arabic, the pictures allow readers to meet an Australian boy and a Moroccan boy whose lives become interconnected. The Moroccan boy and his father sell a rug woven in their rural home, and it ends up in Sydney, in a small house that is being renovated by an Australian family. As the boy in Australia draws a picture of his new “flying carpet,” the Moroccan boy sets up his computer, bought with profits from the rug. Baker’s entrancing collages, packed with visual information and created with fabric, sand, vegetation and other unusual materials, have the power to bring back child and adult viewers for infinite “readings.” Perfectly spectacular. (Picture book. All ages)