“The Party” by Jamaica Kincaid is one of the most unusual and most powerful children’s books I have read in a long time. But what is it about?

It’s not very often that you can experience art without any preconceptions from awards or reviews. I experienced the pure joy of Doug Salati’s “Hot Dog” without having any idea that it had won the 2023 Caldecott Medal.

To read Jean Jullien’s illustrated children’s book of “Imagine” is to achieve the kind of transcendent, dismantled experience that John Lennon depicted in his iconic song.

Sometimes I look at author-illustrator Sophie Blackhall’s farm in upstate New York, and I wonder if it’s the life I was supposed to have.