The Snow Theater

With swirling colors woven through a snowy mountain setting, Arai (Almost Nothing, yet Everything) crafts a surreal tale of guilt and redemption. After his father’s treasured butterfly book is torn during a quarrel with a friend, a rosy-cheeked boy portrayed with goldenrod skin escapes outdoors on skis. Thinking about the incident, he falls into a gap in the snow, and there finds a magical miniature theater where tiny snow people perform a circus-like spectacle. The performance, shown in radiant streaming hues, crescendoes with a dizzying song that seems to speak to themes of escape: “spin in circles, spinning high,/ spin your way into the sky.” As snow flurries escalate, the child has a vision of his friend amid fluttering butterflies, and his father’s hand appears, pulling him out of the snow. On the way home, Dad offers hot chocolate, and even suggests they lend the damaged book to his friend. The chilling, dreamlike narrative can be challenging to follow, but the striking imagery lyrically conveys how shame can be transcended by being open to forgiveness. Ages 5–8. (Nov.)