Print picture book Leave Me Alone!, written and illustrated by Vera Brosgol, is a humorous look at balancing one’s love for family with a need for peace and quiet. Told over 18 spreads and 48 pages, this 2017 Caldecott Honor book is written for preschool-2nd graders, but I’m certain that adults will get as much, if not more, enjoyment out of the text as the children to whom they are reading.
At the beginning of this story, we’re introduced to an old woman who lives in a little house with a big family. Winter is coming, so she’s trying to get her knitting done, but she can’t find the time or space to do it. So, she leaves her house to find some peace and quiet. Her epic journey to be left alone to finish her knitting ensues, ultimately leading her into a wormhole in space. At the end of the story, she returns home to her family with her 30 knitted sweaters.
I appreciate this book’s use of negative space and the placement of text in relation to the pictures. I love the spread with the grandchildren curious about her knitting. The illustrations of the children unraveling balls of yarn are wrapped around the text of the children’s questions about the yarn. The next spread has a single sentence, “The old woman was at the end of her rope.” with a picture of the old woman staring a single red line on the ground.
Brosgol uses patterned language, repetition, and predictability to tell her story. For instance, the old woman’s actions to get ready to go on her journey to be alone are the same actions she takes as she prepares to leave the wormhole and head back to her family. Also, each time the old woman finds a new place to knit, the text tells us where she walked to, what she did before sitting down to knit, what interrupts her, and her response of “Leave me alone!” This increases the humor of the text, as her many attempts to find solitude are foiled and she must go to ridiculous lengths to find it.
This book would make a fun storytime read, but I wonder if it appeals more to adults reading this text to children than to the children themselves. Kids may find it humorous seeing how far the grandmother goes to be alone, but they may also identify with the children who have been left alone and be concerned. Adults, however, will find this story all too relatable. What caretaker hasn’t needed a moment of peace and quiet?
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