POOL :: JiHyeon Lee

This may seem a bit out of the MAR wheelhouse, but I love a good children's book and Pool is one of the most beautiful I've seen in a long time. I finally had the opportunity to flip through a copy in person last weekend when it caught my eye in, of all places, a little nautical gift shop in Pacifica. It's a fabulous picture book with art that tells the story as well or better than words could have. When I bought a copy for my nephew I couldn't help but throw one in for myself as well.  

The story is simple. Here's the blurb from Publisher's Weekly, which describes it much better than I could:

In this wordless debut, Korean artist Lee combines imaginative power and emotional restraint. With a murmur of shaded pencil, she draws a boy in a bathing cap and goggles standing alone beside a public pool. Swimmers arrive suddenly and crowd the water—some are all but indistinguishable from the blubbery inflatable toys they carry—taking up every available bit of space. Diving beneath them, the boy heads straight down. Now, Lee draws the boy and the world he discovers in full color. A girl his age swims toward him, and together they play and explore, swimming among schools of wildly improbable fish of scarlet and blue, fish with snouts like snorkels and fins like ferns. They play hide-and-seek among the sea vents, encounter more threatening fish, and then, deeper still, find themselves eye-to-enormous-eye with a placid, whalelike behemoth. When the two surface and exit the pool, they exchange a shy, intimate glance, silent testimony to all they’ve shared. It’s perhaps the quietest, least remarkable-seeming people, Lee suggests, who see what’s below the surface of the ordinary world. An auspicious and memorable debut. Ages 3–5.

  

I can't recommend Pool by JiHyeon Lee highly enough. Simply gorgeous work and a sweet story that resonates.