It's a Picture Book World

I had a mixed response to Tim Fischer’s 2023 picture book Under the Blanket Sky.

I love the idea behind it: a strange creature visits a kid. They become friends for a time. Then the creature leaves, but the kid still feels distant, wispy memories of it.

I like strange friendship books. I like the unexplained.

But…this book feel between for me. Some of this was the show don’t tell problem: I felt like I was told they were great friends, but not really shown (and definitely didn’t make me feel it). Some of it was ambiguity, rather than mystery. The book specifically says the creature has feathers, and some images make it look like a bird. Others, though, made it seem a more mythical/less defined creature.

It left me saying, “Hmm.”