THE SOUND OF COLORS

A girl addresses the reader calmly: “A year ago I began to notice that my sight was slipping away.” But today she walks out to the subway under a bright yellow umbrella, wearing large round sunglasses. “There are some things I need to find.” When she goes down the subway stairs, a humongous rabbit, like an anime creature, peers from behind the latticework. She gets off at a station, climbing up the long stairs “as slowly as an elephant.” Readers see a procession of the beasts in brightly patterned shirts climbing before her. At another station she wonders, if she steps out, will she be in the ocean with the dolphins? And if she steps off into the air, would the air hold her, as it teaches the birds to fly? The illustrations are really wonderful, full of imagination and glow, turning what this blind child sees in her mind’s eye into visions. Left unfinished, her journey offers a hint of what it must mean to cope with the darkness. (Picture book. 5-9)