Migrants, by Issa Watanabe

I rarely come across a book that’s as appropriate for adults as it is for pre-readers. Young children will likely not understand the allegory here of the many species trying to make their way to safety. On their treacherous journey they are followed by an eerily benign figure representing Death. Much will have to be explained to them about this wordless book, but hopefully it will encourage their empathy for fellow earth-inhabitants, human and animal alike, who have to migrate to stay alive.

I don’t think I can come up with enough superlatives for Watanabe’s superb illustrations in Migrants. She captures a range of emotions in the faces of the anthropomorphic animals. Each double-spread page is cast against a black background, contrasted by the brightly-colored animals and their clothing.

Migrants arrives at 40 pages and is recently published by Gecko Press.

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