ON MY MOUNTAIN

Told in two separate stories, the perspectives of a wolf and a shepherd living on the same mountain are presented in this picture-book import from France.

Thanks to a clever design, readers can begin from either side—the physical book flips so the story begins from either end. One side presents the story from the wolf’s perspective; the other, from the shepherd’s. The wolf’s story begins with an arresting illustration depicting the wolf looking down on the shepherd and flock. “This, here, is my mountain,” the text reads. The wolf goes on to tell how it eats, sleeps, and lives on the mountain and how there is danger, but it is also where the wolf feels safe and happy. The wolf relates how it is wary of the “Other,” who has been feared for generations. The wolf is referring, of course, to the shepherd, who carries a long gun in the accompanying illustration. The wolf’s story ends with the thought that while it’s hard to share the mountain, it “surely…is big enough to fit everyone who loves it.” Flipping the book, readers begin the shepherd’s story—and, in a powerfully teachable moment, it is exactly the same, word for word, as the wolf’s. Peyrat’s illustrations, which use delicate lines and a palette of greens, blues, and Alpine white, never fail to impress with their subtle visual linking of the two stories and their bold, atmospheric design.

Truly a book for today and our changing future.