What a well-designed book!
I’m referring to Shawn Harris’s 2026 picture book Duel. A brief quote from the author inside the front cover mentions that Harris started doing “butterfly paintings” in kindergarten: projects made by putting some paint on paper, then folding the page “to make a symmetrical print.”
While the words on the two-page spreads vary, the images are those doubled shapes. Since the story is about two queens living in two castles on one hill who clash over there not being enough room on the hill for two castles, and the duel they have to resolve the situation, these images fit the story perfectly. They show how two sides of the clash mirror each other, and created both tension (as when the queens pull in different directions) and anticipation (as when two knights on two horses race toward each other on the dueling field).
This continues until two pages show nothing but the lances’ tips about to collide–and the resulting impact and noise.
Finally, this divided realm reaches unity.
Strongly recommended. Good stuff.
