Dinara Mirtalipova | United States
Surreal and lyrical, this dreamlike journey gently invites readers to explore how the Big Things in life - ideas, time, dreams, and memory – aren’t always easy to define and often repeat, moving in circles like a carousel. The story doesn’t rush to explain—it leaves quiet questions behind, letting them echo in the spaces between words and pages. These questions open doors to landscapes of imagination and exploration, where children and adults alike can sense something deeper without needing to name it. When the pinwheel reappears at the end, it’s a reminder that wonder has no beginning or end—it simply turns, again and again. We aren’t told what to think or feel. Instead, we’re invited to slow down, to notice, to wonder—and to breathe in the world with fresh eyes.
Without a conventional storyline, the arc and pacing are framed by two sets of open questions. Asking and answering create an initial rhythm that encourages exploration and multiplicity. As the pace briefly changes, questions are posed without answers; we see repetition surfacing in the words and the artwork. The story closes by circling to the beginning, to the paper pinwheel which we now see differently; perception has shifted.
The book leads the reader through four questions that become progressively more abstract. While the paper pinwheel and summer are more tangible, they loosely represent ideas and time, which then lead to the more challenging concepts of dreams and memories. A chain of repeated words links each concept to the next and ‘circular’ words such as ‘spinning’ and ‘spiral’ bubble up, hinting at the quiet understanding presented on the final spread.
Education:
N/A
Published titles: 13