SELMA

From Germany, a low-key story about a contented sheep.

“When I just couldn’t take it any more, I went to the wise ram,” begins this well-designed, unusually small book. It doesn’t seem to be a book aimed at young readers. The opening illustration shows a discontented, possibly depressed brown dog nursing a glass of red wine, and while the overall theme of the fablelike story—happiness is being content with what you have—may be valuable in some contexts, its exploration here is puzzling. A wise ram tells the dog the story of Selma, a sheep. Selma has a daily routine that consists of eating some grass, playing with her children, exercising, more eating, chatting with a vulture neighbor, and then sleeping. Asked by the press (shown as a pale-skinned human arm holding a microphone) what she would do if she had more time, her answers are the same, with tiny variations in narrative construction but not meaning. When Selma is asked what she would do if she won a million dollars…well, here, readers may be expecting a twist, and those readers will be disappointed. The illustrations are wholly engaging; they are full-page bleeds on the recto, executed in a saturated palette in comforting earth tones with engaging shadow details that give dimension to the landscapes. Selma is an appealing-looking sheep who exudes placidity, contentment, and a little humor. The dog who opens the story never returns.

Lovely illustrations; but the fable falls flat.