Migrants

"So this is moving into slightly darker topics, and the book has a black background (as compared to Suzy Lee’s Wave , which is very much white). That is already setting the scene for what is going to be a difficult story, the story of people who have had to leave their place of origin for some reason, and are looking for a place to be. They are carrying all their belongings with them, but the journey is difficult, and at times it’s dangerous and death joins them. Yes, they are symbolic people, all of them with different animal heads, which is to show diversity and not a particular group, I think. The presence of death, of the skeleton, is also quite striking. They don’t seem to be rejecting the figure, they seem to be accepting of it. It’s a death figure that’s very tender when the character with a rabbit face drowns in the boat crossing. It rides on a blue ibis, which is a symbol of regeneration and hope. And it becomes more colourful as it goes along. I think Migrants is a very good example of a wordless picture book, because it is very much about silence. Even if the book had words, there would be very few words; they seem to walk in silence and interact in silence. Yes, and that’s also very important. They are helping each other, they are caring for each other, they cook for everyone, they share what they have."