Hospitality — friendliness to guests — can take some unusual forms. We often think of this spiritual practice as a gracious outpouring to others. But as this book whimsically shows, it also can be subtle and creatively tailored to even the shyest guest.
Bina herself, a large purple bear, may remind you of yourself or someone you know. She goes to parties, but all she wants to do once she gets there is hide away. And hide she does, in various disguises, each funnier than the last: as a lamp, as a tree, even as groceries.
Meanwhile, her friend and hostess, a diminutive bunny aptly named Tiny, goes in search of her. Here lies the book's true charm. Tiny never pressures Bina to rejoin the others. Instead, this small but wise hostess joins in the charade: for instance, by swinging in the branches of Bina's tree disguise and asking, "Do you want some banana, tree?"
Author and illustrator Mike Curato says the idea for this book came to him during an awful summer when he was supposed to co-facilitate an illustration intensive but only felt like putting a bag over his head and disappearing. His doodle became Bina, with a grocery bag over her head, incongruously saying, "I'm fine." He continued to toy with "the visual play of hiding oneself, because that was my reality in that moment." Pretty soon he was working in pen and ink with color washes to create Bina and Tiny's endearing world.
This book is for 4 to 8 year olds, but like Curato, we readily identified with that feeling of sometimes just wanting to hide away when faced with a room full (or even a Zoom full) of people. And when that happens, what could be better than a friend like Tiny, who skillfully puts empathy and loyalty foremost?
