synchronicity

I love our local library. The children's section is chock-full of original books from the 50s and 60s, so browsing is fun for me too. Last week I spotted a pair of books by Keizaburo Tejima, an author I'd never heard of but, as it turns out, he's a wood cut artist of some repute from Hokkaido, Japan. He wrote and illustrated a handful of children's books about the forests of his home island. The stories are quiet and folky and the pictures beautiful and intricate. They're lovely books. And a nice change of pace from the Buzz Lightyear oeuvre that's required reading around these parts.

So. A week later I'm poking through books at the local thrift shop and gadzooks! There's a Tejima! For .99!




Yesterday, during a rare quiet moment in the afternoon, I linger over this photo in the January MS:



It's Hokkaido, Japan. How strange. I think a new collection has just been born.