The Only Child

A New York Times Best Illustrated Book. Hailed by Entertainment Weekly and the Wall Street Journal as a best book of the year this gorgeous and imaginative story—part picture book part graphic novel—is utterly transporting and original. USA Today declared it “a compelling and melancholy debut from an important new talent as well as an expansive and ageless book full of wonder sadness and wild bursts of imagination.” And like Shaun Tan's The Arrival and Raymond Briggs's The Snowman it is quickly becoming a modern classic.   A little girl—lost and alone—follows a mysterious stag deep into the woods and like Alice down the rabbit hole she finds herself in a strange and wondrous world. But... home and family are very far away. How will she get back there?   In this magnificently illustrated—and wordless—masterpiece debut artist Guojing brilliantly captures the rich and deeply-felt emotional life of a child filled with loneliness and longing as well as love and joy.. “A haunting wordless gorgeously drawn picture book.” —People. “Told wordlessly through soft dreamy illustrations Guojing’s tale evokes the loneliness of growing up under China’s one-child policy.” —Entertainment Weekly. “A dreamy wordless debut.” —The New York Times. Majestic.... Rare is the book containing great emotional depth that truly resonates across a span of ages: this is one such. —Kirkus Reviews Starred. Reminiscent of Raymond Briggs’s classic The Snowman (1978) this is quiet moving playful and bittersweet all at once. —Booklist Starred