This morning I jumped out of bed (which I rarely do) and started to make an inventory of my picture books. If you feel uneasy about the future, lonely because of the enforced social distancing or just bored to be confined to your home - please let me share some great art and literature from my collection of picture books. Book no. 1:
Boris´s Glasses by Peter Cohen (text) and Olof Landström (illustrations), 2002
Boris Glasögon
This is an adorable book about Boris who one night while watching TV sees everything in a blur. He makes an appointment with the eye doctor .
The eye doctor examines Boris´s eyes. He notes that Boris is astigmatic and that it is probably congenital.
Boris is very impressed by the fact that he is an astigmatic. There are bakers, shoemakers and electricians, Boris ponders before he falls asleep that night. And then there are astigmatics. And it is congenital!
Boris is delighted when he can see a lot of things that he didn’t see before he got his glasses. Now when he has such an excellent eye sight, he decides to seek employment in a radio factory. The personnel manager is intrigued when he finds out that Boris is an astigmatic and that it is a congenital thing. He offers him a job to oversee the plug department .
I will not spoil the end but I can tell you that after two days of intense monitoring he is not so sure it´s solely a good thing to wear his new glasses.
My comment:
I can fully sympathize with Boris being an astigmatic myself. When I got my first glasses back in the late seventies I remember how the world became razor-sharp in an instant - so this is what its supposed to look like! On a philosophical note; it is a wonderful thing to see things with clarity, as they really are. Sometimes, though, it is more restful for your mental wellbeing to not see things as they really are, to walk in a blur, oblivious of what is going on around you.
This book is awesome for children between 3-6 years old. So I think Folke (below) would enjoy this book as well as grown-ups with a curious mind.
Erica Stenkrona: Folke 2020, Neocolor I on black mat board.