Play With Me

Well, this is a weird book. The drawings are not very high quality, and seem to be stylized to appear as if they were drawn by a child, but with enough skill that you can tell the difference between characters, which is very strange. They are sketch-like and minimalist, except for the animals and girl which are colorized.

Basically, the story is a little girl goes out to the meadow and sees a bunch of animals and insects, and keeps going up to them and asking if they want to play, but they run away when she gets closer. Among other things, she approaches birds, rabbits, and a snake. Then at the end, she sits down, very still, and all the animals come up to her. A fawn comes out of the bushes to lick her on the cheek. On the last page, she is sitting on the edge of a pond, surrounded by animals that are just chilling with her. It's kind of weird and looks disturbing, because she's maybe 6 or 8 years old, without supervision, next to a snake... Who knows what other creatures could be lurking in the bushes other than that fawn? Bears? Foxes? Something dangerous could be out there. That snake could be a garter snake, but it could be poisonous.

So, yeah. This is just a weird book. It kind of looks like it was drawn by someone in the process of learning to draw. I guess the message is, sit still and be quiet, and forest creatures will approach you? I'm not sure whether that would be advisable, because maybe that chipmunk had rabies. Maybe the snake wants to eat the grasshopper. Or the frog wants to. Or the bluejay wants to. Maybe the snake wants to eat the frog. This book is not to be confused with the myriad other children's books called "Play With Me", nor the rather adult ones out there by the same title.