Pause for a moment to be aware of your own beating heart. Then allow yourself to imagine other beating hearts nearby: those of family, friends, neighbors, co-workers, companion and wild animals. What are they all saying?
Julie Fogliano voices their message in her book's refrain:
... we are here
and alive
together but apart
the same, but exactly different.
With the help of Cátia Chien's spacious, vibrant illustrations, she shows this common space of shared heart in a variety of everyday ways. We all need something to wear, for instance, and Chien's shows 11 variations on this theme, from a cat in a bright-striped sweater to an umpire in uniform and a girl lifting a hoop that surrounds her with a pink bubble. And we all need work and play and sometimes do "nothing much at all," which is pictured by a tiny prop plane soaring in vast, two-page spread.
The words and images neither shy away from nor overemphasize the poignancy of what we encounter on earth. While "some things will grow and overflow," other things will fade away and die — for which we see a polar bear floating on a disk of ice barely large enough to hold her. Along with love wrapping its arms around us, "some days we will curl up and wish to be any other place." But through it all, our hearts beat "strong and steady and sure."
The majesty and mystery of this experience comes through most stirringly in a picture of a girl flying calmly through space. We can see her warm, rose-colored heart at the center of her chest, much as a young child might draw it. Around her, shadings take the form of a bird, a reminder of the refrain: "the same, but exactly different."
Chien dedicates her pictures to the late venerable Thich Nhat Hanh "for helping me find my way back to my beating heart." His spirit of simplicity, humanity, and wisdom inhabits these pages. Like his teachings, it takes on complex themes like unity in diversity and what it means to be alive, yet shows genius in expressing them in ways even a four year old can understand.
