Her ink-and-watercolor paintings are gentle and dreamy, with a real beating heart. Leng uses unbordered panels, sometimes full-page, sometimes small and square, sometimes horizontal. They also give the shop’s exterior a new coat of paint and share in running it, easing the grandparent’s workload and spirits. With elbow grease and enthusiasm, they fix peeling wallpaper, cracking plaster, and cabinets hanging off hinges. Upstairs, a rental apartment sits empty, rejected by prospective tenants, until a new couple looks past its grubby, run-down state. As a child washes breakfast dishes, their harried grandparent exits the kitchen directly into a general store, revealing that they live in rooms behind their shop. In this wordless tale, a chosen family forms. Equally useful as a lesson on social-emotional dynamics and as a story, this book has a place on every shelf. Children and adults alike can see themselves in both the aggrieved party and the wrongdoer, all presented with understanding and compassion.
Most of the scenes are entire little stories in and of themselves while a couple have slightly longer resolutions. The perfect balance of humor and gravity delivers the message in an appealing way, and even the most outlandish scenarios are accessible. Without ever feeling preachy or prescriptive, the calm, even, nonjudgmental tone reminds readers that “apologizing can be hard,” but it’s important to be sincere and simple without making excuses. In Wohnoutka’s light gouache illustrations, the many full-bleed spreads and careful use of white space keep the tone friendly and focused. All the characters are soft-edged anthropomorphic animals: a taunting hyena, a snail speeding past a sloth, two ancient tortoises.
Trade jabs, when a giraffe has borrowed a worm’s socks without asking, or when a chicken breaks a goat’s violin.
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