The Circles in the Sky

Drawn out of his den by strange birdsong, Fox finds a group of crows gathered around a lone bird lying on the ground. In crisp digital spreads, Mountford (The Moonlight Zoo) renders the black bird's claws drawn up awkwardly, its eyes staring at nothing. Not yet understanding death, Fox doesn't know what's wrong; he lacks precise vocabulary for the sun and the moon, too, calling them simply "circles in the sky." A moth who knows more about the natural world's cycles tries to explain death using the nightly disappearance of the sun as a metaphor. "Are you saying Bird will be back tomorrow?!" Fox asks, with hope. Moth backpedals. "JUST TELL ME THE TRUTH," Fox shouts, in a moment of raw emotionality. "Bird is dead," Moth admits. Suddenly, things become clear: "Fox didn't know that word well, but he felt it." In a deeply affecting sequence, the two mourn together. Stylized visual elements--geometric borders that work as hills, circles for heavenly bodies, and seemingly buried skeletons whose faint presence appears alongside the living creatures' own--offer layers of reality echoed by intuitively pitched lines that capture youth's first encounter with death's finality, and with the experience of saying goodbye. Ages 3-7. (Sept.)