Oliver Jeffers and Sam Winston. Candlewick Press, 2016

Sparse, lyrical text follows the ‘child of books’ and the young friend she asks to come away with her on a journey spurred by stories. The words show them the way, figuratively and quite literally. Winston’s typographical illustrations, comprised of text from classic stories and a few songs, are shaped into pathways, mountains of make believe and forests of fairy tales. There is also a fabulous page where the characters escape a monster by climbing from a turret on a rope made of a string of words from Rapunzel. The depth of this picture book is discovered upon rereading and may be lost on the youngest readers, yet their attention will still be held by the varied and clever illustrations. A Child of Books is an invitation into creativity and imagination. It is another picture book ‘win’ for Jeffers, who might just be my favourite picture book author.