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PICTURE BOOKS
Soman, David

The Impossible Mountain

48 pp. | Little | November, 2021 | Trade ISBN 978-0-316-42774-6 $18.99
(2) K-3 Anna, "like a wildflower between the stones," lives with her little brother in a village surrounded by a wall. It is meant to protect them from the unknown world on the other side, one that includes a formidable bear. After getting a glimpse of the magnificent mountain beyond the wall, the two set out, despite warnings ("Climbing the mountain is impossible!"). They brave the unsettling woods, thundering waterfalls, a sharply steep and seemingly never-ending mountain climb, snow, and even the legendary bear, who is not as fearsome as he was made out to be. When the children finally arrive at the mountaintop, they look down at a breathtaking view, which includes their home village below. They head back, knowing the world is "full of mountains, all of them waiting to be climbed." Soman's use of capitalization throughout (the Village, the Wall, the Great and Terrible Bear, and even the Mountain Goat) gives the story a stately feel; that the hero of the epic, exhibiting deeds of great valor, is a girl (with purple hair to boot) is all the more satisfying. Though the siblings' return home is triumphant, the real treasure is the journey itself, filled with dramatic and cinematic vistas in Soman's expansive watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil paintings--soaring mountains, wild orchards in shimmering sunlight, the immense waterfalls, the glistening river, and more.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2022

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