. Her children’s picture books are Leo + Lea (with illustrations by Kenard Pak) and Elbert in the Air (with illustrations by Jerome Pumphrey). Her essays and short stories have appeared in many other venues including The New York Times. For over fifteen years, she’s taught creative writing at UC Berkeley Extension, Stanford Continuing Studies, Left Margin Lit and elsewhere around the Bay Area as well as working one-on-one as an independent editor. A graduate of Reed College and a former fellow at the Fine Arts Work Center, she lives in her hometown of Berkeley, California.
Recently I asked Wesolowska about what she was reading. Her reply:
My Strange Shrinking Parents by Zeno SworderVisit Monica Wesolowska's website.
Not just for children, this incredible new picture book leapt from a bookstore shelf into my arms. The allegory in it is unforgettable. It begins: “It goes without saying that all children believe their parents to be strange. Mine weremore unusual than most.” We soon learn why. After migrating from far-off lands (beautifully illustrated with the parents emerging from a blue-and-white china pattern) these parents have had to pay for the upkeep of their child with their height. An inch here. An inch there. As the parents shrink, the boy grows. Although there are benefits to having shrinking parents (such as more room to dance together in the kitchen!) it’s also painfully embarrassing. Incredibly, the book does not resolve this dilemma by simply undoing their shrinking. Towards the end, there is a wordless page, just cherry blossoms against a sky in the same rich-yet-muted blue of the whole story. Each time I read the book, I feel invited to pause there and ponder the cycles of life and the depths of love.
--Marshal Zeringue
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