TEN-WORD TINY TALES

A global roster of 21 distinguished illustrators contributes imagery for Coelho’s cryptic 10-word stories.

Invoking multiple dimensions in his notes to readers and the tales themselves, Coelho invites illustrators to consider interplanetary space, undersea caverns, and realms between. The interplay of words and resulting double-page spreads—at turns, inexplicable, sweet, or sinister—evokes the work of Edward Gorey and Chris Van Allsburg. The artists bring uniquely varied styles to the project, from Flavia Z. Drago’s Charles Addams–meets-Magritte dining table to Dapo Adeola’s cartoonish depiction of an encounter between a hamster and demonlike creatures. Nahid Kazemi captures a serene moment before mayhem in a slumbering elder’s cozy, plant-filled room as “the Venus flytrap keeps edging closer to Grandma’s favorite chair.” Some artists play with scale to charming or unsettling effect. For “I hear the patter of tiny feet underneath my bed,” Maja Kastelic pictures a mouse in a matchbox bed, a multiplicity of underground insect domiciles below. And the inimitable Shaun Tan reveals a family decorating a departed son’s skull—as big as a house. Often, tales and their paired images carry their own discrete surrealism, combining for spreads sure to puzzle and spark readers’ imaginations. To this end, Coelho offers several writing and drawing prompts, challenging kids to extend the tales with “new beginnings, endings and middles.” Humans depicted are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Twisty, playful fun.