The Bridge

June 5, 2023
On a lonely country road, a wolf flags down a pig in a small yellow sedan. “Stop!” the wolf says, “the bridge up ahead is closed.” In scribbled textures, Swedish author-illustrator Lindström paints a desolate landscape, with downed trees scattered about and no greenery visible anywhere. A chainsaw rests on the ground by a stump. Getting out of the car, the pig carries a small briefcase: “Wait, how long will it be closed for? I have somewhere to be.” There’s immediate tension in the encounter, and in the wolf’s invitation to accompany it home (“It usually takes a while”), but the pig follows the wolf into a startlingly calm dwelling. In a suspenseful meeting, the wolf and its partner offer coffee and pastries, and the pig makes polite small talk about the isolated locale before being escorted back to the car. But after the pig gets back on the road, an unexpected encounter signals that the visit was not quite what it seemed. Depending on the way it’s understood, this shaggy-dog story, gracefully translated by Prime, leaves behind either an eerie, unsettled vibe or a guffaw at an offbeat attempt at socializing. Ages 4–8.

June 1, 2023
A busy pig searches for a bridge. In this Swedish import from author/illustrator Lindstr�m, an anthropomorphized pink pig--wearing a green onesie, carrying a briefcase, and driving a car--is stopped by a large gray wolf, who says that the bridge two miles up the road is closed and invites the pig to wait at the house the wolf shares with a roommate (another wolf). There, the pig politely admires their well-kept home and enjoys coffee and cakes. A painting of a bridge hangs on the wall, but the wolves did not paint it, nor does it depict the bridge up the road. After an indeterminate amount of time, the pig returns to the car and drives along the road only to be informed by a large bird of prey that "there is no bridge here," bringing the tale to an abrupt conclusion. The story is told only in dialogue, with odd twists, stiff prose, and a cryptic ending. Lindstr�m's na�ve gouache illustrations carry readers through a strange, mostly empty world seemingly fraught with danger. While a skilled narrator could probably breathe life into the text, there's little to engage a solo reader. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Enigmatic. (Picture book. 4-7)

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September 1, 2023
Grades K-3 A tiny pink pig in a small yellow car has somewhere to be, but it's stopped by a large wolf who announces that the bridge up ahead is closed. The wolf invites the pig to its home, which it shares with another wolf, to sip coffee while they wait for the bridge to be repaired. Together, they eat cookies and discuss artwork and loneliness before the pig goes on its way--only to discover there was never any bridge at all. Translated from the original Swedish, with off-kilter and perspective-warped illustrations done in a pale wash of gouache and watercolor, this book is entirely original and unique. The text itself is straightforward and simple with an undercurrent of dry humor, but there are strategic and deliberate hints of violence painted ominously into the backgrounds--a chainsaw here, an axe embedded in a stump there--that give the story an unsettling feeling throughout. That, combined with the eerie, mic-drop ending, makes it feel somewhat like a Christopher Nolan film for kids in a 36-page picture-book format.

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December 22, 2023

PreS-Gr 2-A slow-paced cozy adventure of an anthropomorphized pig heading north to drive over a bridge, stalled by a wolf who tells the pig that the bridge is broken. The pig goes home with the wolf to have coffee and snacks with his wolf partner and ends with the pig driving off to discover that the bridge does not exist. The story is told completely in narrative, with implied conversation by text placed in proximity to the animal speaking. The artwork is a charming full-color flat drawings of deliberately limited dimensionality, set at the end of winter when patches of snow are visible. VERDICT A book that opens like a fairy tale and ends more like an existential question, this is recommended as an additional purchase, for its poetic setting and pacing.-Vi Ha

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