Two big questions for you today...

My sister gave me this picture book a few weeks ago and I've been enthralled  since.  The text is one (one!) perfectly crafted run-on sentence about a boy, his dog and their observations on what happens when they plant seeds in early spring.  "First you have brown, all around you have brown, and then there are seeds..."  I told my sister it hurt to read it the first time through because it was utterly masterful--do you ever have that experience?  Something is so...exquisite...that it makes your heart hurt?  I have a daughter who can tear up over the cheese counter at her local co-op, the baby orangutan at the zoo, and dads with kids at Target.  Our youngest said the perfect, undiscovered song can do it for him, and the underwater retro world of the video game, Bioshock.  My good friend said the sound of her boys laughing together and a bouquet of tulips.   What, to you, is so aesthetically pleasing or perfect that it almost hurts?

This is another very special book. Note that both books are illustrated by Erin Stead.  This storyline speaks volumes on kindness--a devoted zookeeper who lovingly particularizes each of his animals, comes down with a bad cold, so the animals take the bus to his house to keep him company and care for him.  Such expressive illustrations and though the storyline is unrealistic, it is perfectly believable.  Of course the animals could take the bus to his house, play games with Amos and figure out what Amos needed most.

How does an author create that "of course"?  As a kid, I remember reading a story about a girl who gets a toy ambulance for her birthday and decides to use it to rescue injured animals in the woods.  She carried miniature supplies for the robin with a broken wing, the beetle with an injured leg, etc.  She made a little hospital out in woods, too, for the animals to recover more fully in.  I was a gullible kid, yes, but I believed every word!  Of course she could do that.  Of course the animals were grateful and didn't bite her or freak out or give her rabies.

Good writing often makes us suspend our belief.   Have you read an "of course" book lately where the author completely had you, even though the storyline was implausible?