Paper Boat, Paper Bird

This is a short story about Mina, who has already appeared as a character in David Almond’s Skellig and My Name is Mina. Here, she is visiting Japan and is presented with an origami boat and bird by someone she sits next to on a bus. Little happens in the story subsequently. She makes her own boat and bird, writes her name on them, and floats them on the temple lake at Kinkakuji in Kyoto; and that night she dreams of a dark-haired boy. The story’s focus then switches to Miyako, who may be the boy in Nina’s dream, and who finds her boat and bird while swimming. He writes his name on the bird and sets it free, and Nina catches it and finds his name. Finally, after passing each other unknowingly more than once, Nina and Miyako meet, and there the story ends. This low-key tale demands the kind of sensitive reader that you imagine Mina herself to be. Written with poetic restraint and precision, its quiet purpose, I think, is to convey the fascination of Japanese culture to a child visitor and to suggest gently how art and creativity speaks across cultural difference to our common humanity. This is certainly the message of David Almond’s afterword, where he reminisces about his own visit to Japan. I would imagine the lack of dramatic incident in the story presented a challenge to the illustrator, Kirsti Beautyman. Using a restricted colour palette, accenting significant features in red – the bird, the boat and elements of Mina and Miyako’s clothing – and posing her characters as if caught in freeze frames, she succeeds in creating a sense of meditative stillness that perfectly complements Almond’s story.