A WALK IN THE WOODS with a Brilliant Creative Team

Neal Porter Books, 2023
Holiday House Publishing

I've been eagerly awaiting a chance to read and closely consider this recent release by what can only be called a "dream team" of talent: Nikki Grimes, Jerry Pinkney, and Brian Pinkney. Stars and raves have accumulated in the short time since its release. Those will continue to pour in as award season approaches. (You can bet on it!). With these stellar names attached and such widely reported praise, it's not a book that "needs" my support or encouragement for readers to seek it out. 

Even so, I'm compelled to join the chorus of praise for so many reasons. Some creators' names guarantee my interest. These three, individually, would each do so. In combination, anything resulting from their collaboration would be irresistible. 

A WALK IN THE WOODS adds to that appeal an evocative natural setting. A wooded area rich with personal and cultural history, wildlife, flora, and glimpses of the Hudson River is the stage for fraught subject matter: a son's grief over the death of his father. The cover reveals that the illustration approach is both familiar and unique for those of us who have read every picture book illustrated by either Jerry or Brian Pinkney. The father of this remarkably talented duo, Jerry, died in October, 2021. Given the pace of publication/production for picture books I imagined this might well be his final project, and perhaps one that involved his son, Brian, intentionally, possibly due to failing health. That assumption was from my unknowing distance. As the release approached the true story-behind-the-story was shared widely, revealing the truth of this book's origins and completion. 

Author/poet Nikki Grimes has been a close friend to illustrator/author Jerry Pinkney and his family for fifty years. It was only in recent years that they realized they had never created a book together and set out to change that fact. I won't reveal more about the genesis of this story and intended art, nor of the way the project was interrupted by Jerry's death. That backstory has become readily available, and both Grimes and Jerry's son Brian Pinkney shared details and their personal responses to the process in backmatter notes. The work itself is breathtakingly beautiful in theme, narrative, poems, and illustrations. Learning about the mystical sequence of events weaving through the lives of these people and the life of this book gives me chills. I suspect it will for you, as well.

The book opens with an inset illustration and a double spread of the father/son subjects, followed by a single page spread of the grieving boy at his desk with his mother behind his shoulder- all before the title page is displayed. Those images and the following pages are a response to the writing completed by Grimes, with the tight sketches and layouts completed by Jerry before his passing. These form the scaffolding for son Brian's color applications: painted swirls and focused blends of hues, tones, and movement that lift those sketches from line art to living, lovely illustrations, filled with emotion and tension. An illustration/book design bonus is that the gorgeous jacket covers a richly detailed sketches on the hard case front and back. 

The story opens with the pictured son longing for some message of inspiration from his deceased father, reflecting the pain and struggle of loss in his expressions and postures that enhance and support the poignant text provided by Grimes. The original sketches took into account each page design with single, double, and three-quarter page art spreads, allowing the text for each passage and page to resonate with its own pace and power. The lyrical narrative and the treasured poetry/sketch samples (found following the father's message and map of the woods) are direct, delicate, and deep-spirited.

Grief is evident throughout, but healing and hope move the boy and the readers throughout their journey through the woods. The final single spread reflects that opening spread of the boy with his mother behind his shoulder. In this case, though, the grief of both son and mother appear to be eased by examining the treasures left behind. The tender wisdom of the boy's father is apparent, knowing how to draw his son back to their shared walks, to reveal and remember what he could find in those paths and encounters, providing important traces of their shared experiences.

It is not possible to separate my praise for the text from the images. Grimes has demonstrated her gift for evoking and exploring the deepest emotions of young people throughout her career. The symbiosis of her sensitive lyrical language and both Pinkneys' lovingly completed illustrations is utterly powerful. I often take joy in teasing apart details and examples from fine works, considering the alchemy of creation. Despite my eagerness to examine this book carefully and share my reactions with readers, the magical quality of its language and lilting illustrations makes me reluctant to describe or excerpt any element of its contents. It deserves to be read as a whole, to be treasured as the work of art it is.

 My analysis about text or images doesn't begin to do justice to the direct messages from Grimes and Pinkney in those back notes, nor would I dare synthesize or paraphrase any examples from the remarkable walk and resulting moments of change. Experiencing this book in totality on its own merit is the way to appreciate it. Even so, it's not giving anything away to quote a closing line from the book:

"Dad knew I needed this walk in the woods."

For those who have dealt with grief (most of us), and those rare few who have not yet faced it directly, this is a must-have read and collection addition. I spent about an hour in an indie bookstore this week, where I found several copies of WALK IN THE WOODS on prominent display. After browsing only a short time, they had all been purchased before I returned to the shelf. Don't miss out.