The very concept of a book like this filling a whole shelf by itself is already admirable. Its touching message is rendered with an illustration technique, whose tightly packed, crowded images hark back to the still mysterious format of the cave painting. We are presented with everything altogether, the entire story and all its characters. Afterwards sits alongside Before. The story does not unfold necessarily chronologically but can be “read” as every reader pleases. This somewhat untoward structural medley does not only hail from our ancestral past. Comic and Pop art, muralist paintings, densely figurative frescoes, fabric designs, Christmas crèches and votive offerings all use a similar visual presentation. And like them, the key to deciphering the mysterious whole is offered by the myriad micro-stories that unfold on the page one by one. The graphic Babylon then miraculously takes on meaning. One feels the strong influence of the frescoes of Diego Rivera and David Alfaro Siqueiros, and especially the wood engravings by José Guadaloupe Posada. To be sure, however, no child will feel any sense of bewilderment, understanding implicitly how the system works.

The return of the gouge, the key tool for making linocuts and wood engravings, cannot be sufficiently applauded. This ancient tool and the skill it demands provide books of great teaching potential, since the child can learn by looking and reading, as well as actively seeking to reproduce the artistic technique. This book is especially laudable for the consummate expertise and craftsmanship of execution. The figures do not just refer to a glorious past but also dialogue with the present through ironic references to modern day icons. Similarly, both layout and graphics match the excellence of the engravings, further enriching the publication and providing a sense of materiality. We feel that Paul Klee’s studio can’t be far away. The result is a series of small graphic gems that prompt much thought.

The graphic style of this book hailing from very different worlds makes us consider illustration and the pictorial arts in a new way. It is an “otherness” that intrigues, pleases, and enthrals. It makes us hope that authentic dialogue between cultures can be possible, for these exquisite illustrations - an enchanted medley of visual fragments with an embroidered palette of colours - deserve wide appreciation. For us, access to this special figurative world is of course via the fairy story. The weave of tangible signs and their evident unwritten meaning has an Aesopian dimension we recognise. In this way, otherness and exoticism fuel our wish to know and enjoy this densely woven canvas and reveal a disconcerting “novelty” that sweeps us along. Children today are sorely in need of these adventures that sharpen the eyes and the senses. The stimulating cultural distance this book expresses, its fascinating Otherness, heightens out perception and is a source of new knowledge.