Long Island Books: "The Faraway Drawer"
By Harriet Diller
Illustrated by Andrea Shine
Boyds Mills Press, $14.95
Ah, the child's imagination, conditioned to take a young dreamer on a journey at the least provocation. And the delicate, tentative world of the young, balanced as it is between reality and the netherworlds that may or may not be real. . . .
In "The Faraway Drawer," it is a visit to the guest room, and a look at Great-Grandmother's hand-knitted sweaters stored there, that propels the young narrator into imaginary worlds.
Evoking memories of days poking through Nana's attic, or occasional forays into the mysteries of Big Sister's dresser drawers, the story is told in a child's simple, poetic voice, describing a much-loved, repeated, and secret ritual:
Upstairs
down the dark hall
on the other side of the closed door
in the cool and distant guestroom
is the faraway drawer.
In which lie the sweaters, "one-two-three-four," adorned with traditional Nordic patterns, whose names Mother has taught her daughter, patterns which unfold into worlds that welcome only the child, worlds secret from adults.
One, the mother explains, is made of "Swedish weaving," and evokes a "cool sky . . . strands of white yarn woven through the blue." "That's part of the truth," explains our adventurer, "but not the best part, which is where the sweater takes me."
Another is adorned with "dancing ladies the color of Christmas trees," who prance to life along the drawer's edge in one of this book's lush, detailed watercolor illustrations.
The drawings, by Andrea Shine of Southampton, draw us into the dream, a visit to a red planet, and a wintry island on which the sweater's black shapes caw to life as crows. Back in the guest room, where the young girl is drawn, head propped sideways against a cozy wool sweater created by a loved one from long ago, I can almost feel the sun on my face on a quiet family afternoon, a child left alone to fantasize, to conjure, and to travel along that line between the here-and-now and the what-may-be.