CRESCENDO

An artistic meditation on gestation.

Turning publishing convention on its
head, the illustrations came first in this stunning, extra-long picture book.
Sanna’s watercolors, originally created for a wordless book published in Italy,
depict the nine months of human gestation with sequential spreads of a pregnant
woman’s growing torso, crescendoing to birth. Her belly increasingly protrudes
with successive page turns, but it is not merely a woman standing still;
instead, the illustrations can be read both as an expectant mother’s body and
as the curved wings of a sea gull, the arc of a whale’s tail, and the sloping
descent of a hillside. This merging of the body and the natural world
emphasizes humanity’s place in the circle of life while presenting breathtaking
visuals. The accompanying, poetic text guides readers through successive
images, shifting focus to the developing fetus through direct address. “Month
4” reads, for example: “And while you are still learning to breathe / Patterns
are drawn on your fingertips for you and you alone.” Corresponding backmatter
pages offer “Developmental Facts that Inspired the Text” (which, unfortunately,
are unsourced). For Month 4 this expository text reads, in part, “The fetus’s
lungs are not completely formed yet, but it has started to practice respiratory
movements. Fingerprints and footprints are being defined.” It’s a sophisticated
offering, perhaps better suited for baby showers than nurseries, but it’s lovely
all the same.

Sublime. (Picture book. 5-adult)