Lines

Korean picture-book artist Suzy Lee, whose previous wordless picture-books, Wave and Shadow, were both chosen as New York Times Best Illustrated Children's Books of the Year, returns to the form in Lines, a gorgeous exploration of lines (naturally), ice-skating, and learning to start over, when one

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has made a mistake. The girl depicted in Lee's artwork swoops and swirls over the ice, making lines with her skates. Her fall is mirrored by Lee herself, in a meta-fictional move, as the artwork shows a crumpled piece of paper, directly after the fall. But then the girl notices other skaters, and is helped to her feet by one of them...

As someone who greatly admires Lee's work, I picked up Lines fully expecting to enjoy it, and I was not disappointed. There is such a sense of energy and motion in her illustrations here, that one almost feels as if one is zipping along on the ice as well! As always, I appreciate artists who aren't afraid of the white space on the page, and am always struck by how immediate and powerful Lee's pictures are, despite (or perhaps because of) their simplicity. The sparing use of color here - the limited bits of red used in depicting the girl-skater's hat - is also astute, creating a truly wintry feeling, while the lines themselves are sometimes quite beautiful. I particularly liked when the skater's swoops and swirls created a design that almost looked like music. Recommended to Suzy Lee fans, to those seeking wordless picture-books, or to anyone looking for stories about skating and/or trying again, when at first one fails.

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