JUMP FOR JOY

A girl and a dog lead parallel lives, until they meet.

Joy, a pigtailed youngster in a polka-dotted dress, longs for a dog. “A big dog. A little dog. A spotted dog. A curly dog. It didn’t matter.” But she’s willing to wait. As the omniscient narrator tells readers, “She’d know her dog when she saw him.” Jump, a playful pup, also has a wish. He longs for a kid: “a big kid. A little kid. A spotted kid. A curly kid. It didn’t matter.” But he’s patient. “He’d know his kid when he saw her.” In the spring, Joy carefully crafts a dog out of flowers. She names him Tulip. Alas, the flowers wilt. Jump carefully crafts a kid out of plants. He names her Fern. But the ferns also wilt. Each season, Joy and Jump create a friend out of natural materials to manifest their destiny. Then, the following spring, Joy and Jump finally meet—and both jump for joy. Ruelle packs in an impressive amount of clever wordplay in a relatively spare text. The repetitive rhythm of both Joy and Jump doing similar actions is reassuring, while Hooper’s brilliant, mostly black-and-white collaged world highlights the sepia-toned friends as they navigate their way toward each other. Of course, when they finally cross paths, the world blooms into color.

A wistful meditation on patience and discovery.