A Page in the Wind

What’s a newspaper’s purpose? We think we know the answer. Of course, a paper brings us the news, perhaps also advertisements. But according to this unique picture book, told from the perspective of a newspaper, there is so much more to its life.

“I came into the world early one morning, in a large cold place,” the telling begins. The paper, part of a group of “newborns,” is anxious to be delivered to its first home, the newsstand.

And soon,”someone took the first of us.”

In no time, all his paper-companions are sold, until only the narrator is left behind on the newsstand. But then, “something different happened.”

The wind rips it apart and carries its pages away, to different people, each using the sheets for a unique purpose. A woman cleans windows with it, a boy buries his gold fish in another sheet; for a homeless person the paper serves as a blanket.

The mixed-media illustrations supplement the text perfectly. On each page the Colombian illustrators invite us to consider what exactly happened before the newspaper was blown into the scene. Who are the lovers who use the paper to shield them from the rain? Why does the paper think it recognizes its mother in the woman with the perambulator? Readers are invited to pause, look at the images, and wonder about the story behind each situation.

One wants to slow down while enjoying this lovely book. What is it all about? Belonging, finding one’s true meaning and purpose in life, making connections?

And what does the paper say on its last page that makes a man so happy? We can’t know for sure, but the illustration invites us to take a guess. It’s an intriguing ending to an enchanting picture book.