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PICTURE BOOKS
Burgess, Matthew

Sylvester's Letter

48 pp. | Enchanted Lion | August, 2023 | Trade ISBN 9781592703807 $19.95
(2) K-3 Illustrated by Josh Cochran. "Some letters can't be delivered in the usual way. But I have a plan." Sylvester­ misses his grandmother, G.G., and attempts to send her a letter, in this tender and imaginative book about longing. Where is G.G.? The answer is ambiguous. Sylvester speaks of sending skydivers into the jungle "where the rare pink dolphins wait," so perhaps G.G. is a scientist in a remote location. Or maybe this is a child trying to understand an absence that is beyond his reckoning. Cochran lets Sylvester illustrate his own story--a couple of double-page spreads show him drawing the very pictures we’re looking at--and the whimsical images created with bold colors and thick brushstrokes have a kidlike energy and charm. Wordless spreads, including a gatefold that opens up to show everything in this child's mind and heart, give readers the opportunity to digest the magnitude of his emotions. He ultimately sprawls on the lawn under the moon feeling his feelings, when a butterfly lands on his nose. G.G.? Coincidence? The specificity of Sylvester's experience gives this book a wistful note, and the ambiguity allows for the opportunity to consider many types of absence.
Reviewer: Adrienne L. Pettinelli | Horn Book Magazine Issue: September, 2023

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