The story lasts, the title already reveals it, only “A tiny little second” – and yet there is much more to the new book by French illustrator Rébecca Dautremer. A huge hidden object to fold out.
How long does a moment last? You don’t have to ask a lot of people to get all sorts of different answers. You can also just start with yourself: the perception of time, the idea of how long or short something took, is extremely different and not only depends a lot on what you are experiencing in that moment, but also on how it is meant for one is. In this respect, it is not true when one denies that children have an understanding of time. Even adults lack it (sometimes). And that’s great.
Because what an incredible power, actually unimaginable diversity can lie in a moment is shown in the wonderful book “A tiny little second” by Rébecca Dautremer (From the French by Andrea Spingler. Insel Verlag, 2022. 35 pages, 54 euros) . The term book doesn’t really describe what you hold in your hand and spread out in front of you. Because “A Tiny Little Second” is a giant leporello that can easily lead you through almost an entire children’s room if you unfold it completely, and that then completely grabs you with its hidden object magnificence.
“A single picture to tell just a small, inconspicuous second? Is that a joke? Is that enough for a book!?” The illustrator and author Dautremer, born in 1971, asks in the prologue of her book. Absolutely, one would like to say after studying the 2.17 meter long picture! Because the French also manages to ask the big questions of life in her new work – how does time pass? And what do you fill them with? – and then to pack them so magically lightly into their line and a sketchy narrative that one feels happily gifted.
Hundreds of animals populate a small French town here. Not only do they wear human clothing, they also behave like humans, as you can read in the accompanying booklet. Mouse, donkey, rabbit or rhino are stressed, worried or elated. They have to hurry, are scared or fall in love. They do all of this in one and the same second. Rébecca Dautremer achieves something that one would not actually think possible in a picture: In her panorama, she makes visible what astonishing richness lies in a moment. And in each (from 6 years)