"Sometimes Etty thought of new questions ...
Do butterflies
live everywhere in
the world?
I've found butterflies
everywhere I've
ever been.
Except in the middle
of the ocean."
This is a most enjoyable telling of a fanciful story that might have happened between Charles Darwin and his daughter Henrietta. Etty loved being with her father on an oval path he had made to provide a place to exercise and think quietly as he walked. They occasionally shared The Sandwalk.
"They would begin by deciding how many
times to go around and then setting out
flint pebbles to keep track.
Let's do four.
Four it is."
While they walked Etty felt comfortable sharing some of her own questions. On this particular day, she wondered if her father believed in fairies. Her father, always honest with her, felt it hard to believe in something he had never witnessed. Etty explained that she was not SURE there were not fairies, as sometimes she thinks she has seen one. Her father remained skeptical, but talked to her seriously about using close observation to look at the world around her. Their talk was thoughtful and open, and often led to new ideas .. for both of them.
'The artwork in this book was rendered in watercolors, pencils, crayons, pastels, gouache, papers, ink and pixels using brushes, scissors, glue sticks and love'. Wonderful it is, creating a Victorian setting true to the time the Darwins would have been sharing their thinking path and providing natural scenes meant to invite important questions for discussion. Lovely, shifting perspectives keep readers attentive and impressed.
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