The Tunnel (Picture Book)

 

My Thoughts:

If you think of picture books as spoken work poems with the graphics supplying the mood and harmonies, then this book The Tunnel by Sarah Howden is a short riff of the blues in a late night club. 

A boy in his room sits alone and holds his sadness in his body and a shovel in his hand. Despite loving women that try to talk to him, he needs to dig and dig and dig. Which he does. 

This is a story about patience by adults to give children safe space to self heal. 

Publication date:March 15, 2022 by Owlkids Books

From the Publisher:

A spare, powerful story about taking space to process difficult feelings 

After something bad happens, a boy feels sad and gray. Mom and Aunt Cheryl try to talk about it, but he feels like running away. So he picks up a shovel and starts digging a tunnel from his room, deep down and into the backyard. Out there, far from the lights of the house, it’s dark enough that he could disappear. But the quiet distance also gives him the space he needs to see his family’s love and start returning home.

As he heads back, the journey upward is different. He notices familiar details and tunes into his senses. The tunnel isn’t so scary this time. The boy emerges into his room just as Mom peeks in. When she notices a twig in his hair, he is ready to talk about the tunnel and finds warmth in her gentle acknowledgment: “You came back.”

Quiet, emotionally resonant text is paired with grayscale drawings accented with red in this thoughtfully layered exploration of coping with tough emotions, and taking time and space to heal.