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Gus at first is bored, then confused, and finally hysterical, after Sonya the zookeeper explains that Ida is so sick she will soon die.

But their favorite shared experience is sitting on their beloved rock listening to the sounds of the city, something Ida calls “the city’s heartbeat.” One day Ida doesn’t come out of her cave. The bears live an idyllic life, playing ball, splashing in the water and sleeping.

Santoso’s dense, luscious paintings give the couple a solid, reassuring world to live in, which changes in tone and hue according to the characters’ emotional state throughout the story. It’s an example of children’s books at their best. Text, illustration and design culminate harmoniously in the center of the book to elevate this unlikely love affair.Ĭaron Levis and Charles Santoso tackle the sadness that ultimately comes with love in “Ida, Always.” Inspired by two ­real-life polar bears, Gus and Ida, who were residents of New York City’s Central Park Zoo, this wonderful story about the loss of a loved one is beautifully told. This tale is punctuated with several die-cut pages of geometric snowflakes and organic ink-drop shapes. Both worlds are colorful and lovely and enhance the protagonists’ desire to fling themselves into the unknown in order to find love. Simona ­Mulazzani’s lush illustrations take the reader to two distinctly different worlds: inside an artist’s art-filled studio, where a drop of ink waits patiently to be put to use, and outside to a serene snow-blanketed town, where a snowflake wonders where it will land. The book’s clever design allows the reader to choose which solitary expedition to follow first - Snowflake’s or Inkdrop’s - with two front covers and two stories that connect in the middle. Billy is down, but he’s not out, and in Teague and Portis’s simple universe, a friendship is born.Īlessandro Gatti and Pierdomenico Baccalario’s “The Story of Snowflake and Inkdrop” may not be about humans, but the journey of these two unlikely soul mates is deeply rooted in humanity. He misfires several times, ultimately failing big-time and being swept all the way to the ground. Rather than fighting his adversary the wind, cleverly represented by Portis as swirling laminated lines, almost invisible over the art and text, Billy tries to use it to connect with the girl.