Small Gifts

Immi’s Gift written and illustrated by Karin Littlewood

Synopsis:
Two children half a world away from each other are connected in an unexpected way in this timeless, fanciful story.

Way, way up north in a snow-covered frozen world, a young girl breaks a hole in the ice and fishes for her supper. But instead of a fish, at the end of the line is a small, brightly painted wooden bird. She ties it onto her necklace, next to a small wooden bear.

Day after day her fishing pole brings up more colorful surprises from the swirling sea under the frozen ice. She decorates her igloo with the beautiful treasures, and animals come from far and wide to visit with her and share stories of faraway lands. When it is time to move on, she visits the fishing hole one more time and drops the little bear from her necklace into the water.

Faraway, a young boy walks along a beach in the hot, hot sun. He throws a colorful object into the water. Then something catches his eye. There washed up on the beach is a small wooden bear...

Comments:

Immi’s world is white and cold and colourless. The vast whiteness of Immi’s world is contrasted by this tiny object that appears at the end of her fishing line. First one, then many more colourful objects follow.
Although the two children never meet, the story manages to build a bridge between the two contrasting worlds, two contrasting cultures and two similar children. It isn’t until the last page, when we see the boy in the tropics fish a small white bear trinket out of the water, that we make the connection and understand what’s happened. Even though the story is done the reader is compelled to dream up ideas of how the two will remain connected.