It’s a Small World

The Hidden World of Gnomes – written and illustrated by Lauren Soloy
Tundra Books, 2023

To children, convinced that there are parallel universes of humans, animals, or supernatural creatures, their worlds may not be hidden at all. If they are hidden, they are accessible to anyone committed to looking for them.   Lauren Soloy  (I’ve reviewed her other books here and here) is consciously working in the tradition of Beatrix Potter, as well as Mary Norton’s The Borrowers, The Giant Golden Book of Elves and Fairies by Jane Werner and Garth Williams, and Gyo Fujikawa’s Come Follow Me to the Secret World of Elves and Fairies and Gnomes and Trolls, as well as many other classics. Yet her visual style is unmistakably hers alone, and her approach is much more than an homage.  The Hidden World of Gnomes is truly distinctive: a catalogue, a meditation, a work of gentle humor and an ode to humanity, big or small.

This book as 96 pages. You can read it all at once, or by individual sections.  It is not a sequential narrative, but an introduction to a fantasy world people by hidden folk, with names such as Puckle Swift, Cob Tiggy, Hotchi-Mossy, and, of course, Beatrix Nut. As Soloy helpfully points out in her greeting, “Their hearts may seem small, but actually they are big enough to hold the entire world and al the plants, animals and fungi that live there.” Note the specificity of her definition.  Each gnome is a unique individual but they inhabit a community, just like the rest of us.  They employ a lunar calendar (like some of us), dance and sing spontaneously, and use a variety of tiny implements made from both the natural and artistic worlds.

Their existence is full of many different kinds of joy:  making a wish on a dandelion, writing a letter, listening to birds and laughing with friends. The types of joy that characterize their lives are either timeless (bird listening) or defiantly old-fashioned (letter writing.).

 

Soloy’s inimitable style combines simplicity and detail.  The gnomes have simple body forms and stick-figure limbs. Their eyes and smiles adopt a range of expressions within a deceptively limited range, by slight adjustments of size or angle. Earth colors fill their habitat.  The gnomes’ winter rest scene shows them asleep in a communal bed, having grown white beards as a symbol of sagacity.

They are both childlike and old; part of the beauty of being a gnome is agelessness! At the end of the day, or the month, or the season, their message is one of persistent joy. Like Charlotte and her web,  they even spell it out for you. Soloy wears her literacy and artistic sophistication lightly, while communicating to children that she knows what it’s like to live in two worlds.