The TTLG 2011 Picture Book Celebration: Book two hundred and twenty-seven

I am one of those people who panics when something happens to my computer or my internet connection. I need these things for work, but I also cannot imagine living without my online newspapers and Wikipedia. The downside, I feel, to all this technology, is the way in which people connect on a personal level less than they used to. We can talk to one another more easily, but do we really reach out in a meaningful way?

Today's picture book beautifully shows how important it is to reach out to others so that they know that we really care and are thinking about them.

Immi’s gift

Karen Littlewood

Picture Book

For ages 5 to 7

Peachtree Publishers, 2010, 978-1-56145-545-4

   Immi lives in a place where the wind is icy and where snow falls. All she ever sees around her is an empty “frozen white world.” One day Immi is fishing through a hole in the ice and instead of catching a fish, she pulls up a small colorful wooden bird. Immi has never seen so many beautiful colors and she ties the little bird onto her necklace, “next to a small white bear.”

   The next day she pulls up a red flower. Then there is an orange starfish, a green leaf, and a purple feather. Soon Immi’s igloo is covered with colorful decorations, and her home is “the brightest thing in the land.” The colors attract many animals to Immi’s home, and soon she is no longer lonely. She has lots of friends who stay to supper and who fill the “long dark nights with stories of faraway lands.” Who sent these gifts to Immi and why?

   All too often we live our lives cut off from others, not seeing their troubles, and not reaching out to them in friendship. This beautiful picture book celebrates the magical moment when we make the effort to connect with another person. It shows us how important it is to reach out to others, even people who live far away. That moment of contact is truly a precious thing.