Elephants, Whales, and Lost Penguins: Three Books about Other Species
This time I’m going to review three books about other species, their journeys, and their possible cultures and languages. Shiloh By S A Moon This tiny book is a beautiful enigma. Mr. Moon is a mysterious internet presence, known by several different names; he is the creator of art, stories, songs, mythologies, conlangs, and something called the Blurry Rabbit Dream Klub. He is also the illustrator who created the moon-horse on the covers of my MadStones books. Many of these things (including, at this point, the moon-horse) ask more questions than they answer. This book is an example: with beautiful line-drawn illustrations, he tells the tale of a penguin who has wandered away from the others but doesn’t seem to know he is lost. The penguin speaks of the journey in a kind of running monologue, but he goes nowhere and comes to no conclusions. He merely observes his world. If you read this book quickly (I did it in a couple of minutes the first time), you miss the point. It may seem ...