The Spaces In Between

July 24, 2023
A child learns how to find and inhabit quiet moments amid the press of metropolitan life in this uneven picture book exploration of mindfulness. Addressed to the reader, bustling pages offer rhyming suggestions for handling various feelings wrought by a city: seek out “the secret places no one else has seen... special spaces that can help quiet your mind.” While many are familiar—a local library, a park—suggestions including museum visits and sitting inside “a zooming city bus” purport other ways “to escape the chaos and the fuss.” Though some recommended high-traffic spaces could easily lend themselves to sensory overload, useful advice from Kaur involves experiencing and observing. Thapp’s colorblock illustrations depict a large-eyed child with close-cropped bangs and brown skin investigating the variously diverse city with a caretaker. A concluding note lays the foundation for a meditative practice. Ages 4–7.