If you've been reading here you'll know that I've recently indulged in sharing some stunning picture books about birds, both fiction and nonfiction, as I did in my last post HERE.
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| EE5RDMANS BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, 2025 |
I'm overdue to expand my species focus, so CATS are on the agenda. I am allergic to cats, but not in picture books and today CATS take center stage. LATE TODAY, written by Jungyoon Huh and illustrated by Myungae Lee, with translation by Aerin Park is a cat story and so much more.
Not only is this book masterful at capturing a moment in time: a rainy morning in gridlocked traffic on a bridge, an empathetic awareness of a tiny creature in need. It presents a brief storyline (lasting less than an hour in plot) with tension that evokes the lived experiences of delayed commuters and a stray kitten who is dodging cars, dripping wet, confused, and seemingly helpless.
The title, LATE TODAY, offers an effective and engaging double-intended descriptor. The heavy traffic will certainly slow things down. The rain isn't helping. When that dripping kitten is seen dodging tires and skirting curbs, traffic slows even more.
Concise text launches this story before the title page with what seems to be a news report about slowed traffic, followed by a mention, at 8:15 AM, that "We can't be late TODAY!".
The scenes described above open the first several pages of the story, after many in various vehicles who notice and appear to care about the kitten's well-being.
And yet...
The heart of the book relates to choices. To the many on that bridge and their reasons for looking away, despite claiming to care. To the penetrating rain, with one double spread simply showing RAIN! Ultimately, a decision is made. Horns honk and traffic stalls. The closing bridge scene features the initial font and pattern of a report indicating that traffic is beginning to ease. The perspective of the bridge at opening and closing are similar and yet those minimal words and slight angle shifts allow readers to view the traffic as STALLED in the opening spread but ROLLING AGAIN in that closing spread. Absolutely brilliant!
The limited text also reveals the priceless value of a topnotch translator, not merely turning words from one language to those of another, but choosing and arranging those selected words in ways that preserve and convey the full potential of this richly layered work.
This book is a cat book, as promised, but it is so much more. Those opening and closing spreads frame satisfying storytelling with heart.More than that, those multiple center spreads invite readers to slow down, despite the tension of a kitten in trouble. It puts readers in the position of deciding what CARING means. Is it an emotion that confirms to ourselves what good people we are, or does actual caring REQUIRE action? It's not an easy question to answer. How exactly should folks on a bus manage to help that desperate cat? How could any driver even stop in such bumper-to-bumper traffic? The people ask themselves various questions, through visual expressions and other cues, leaving it to readers to decide for themselves what they might do.Then, a page turn, a decision made by one person, one that stops traffic but sets a solution in motion.
There is plenty to enjoy about this evocative, heartfelt, challenging story. LATE TODAY reminds us, too, of the pace at which we race through each day. How LATE is late, and how important is that? What differences can we make in our own and others' lives? That seems like a lot for a tiny wet kitten to carry into our minds, but with the help of authors, illustrators, and a translator, it's a successful effort!
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