DELIVERY

A box of cookies travels from the kitchen where they’re made to a destination across the universe.

Meshon’s premise is simple but spectacular. There’s a red heart on a certain block of a monthly calendar on the wall of a kitchen occupied by a gray-haired, pale-skinned lady and her ginger cat. “We almost forgot,” the lady says, as the cat hands her a spoon. The story proceeds wordlessly from here. The lady bakes several sheets of red, heart-shaped cookies, packs them in a white box, and hands them to a deliveryman, whose gleaming white truck also has a heart on it. The truck travels along roads lined with green trees and white sheep. The package goes from the truck to a tractor to a tugboat to a submarine, helicopter, train, and dog sled. They’re passed from the dog sled to a spaceship, which orbits the Earth. Readers will notice that the operators of these various machines are of many races and genders. The spaceship touches down in the front yard of a green-shingled house, and the astronaut delivers the package to a pale-skinned child: “She remembered!” The rear endpapers present a visual joke that will have kids wondering just how literally to take those cookies’ journey. Meshon’s digital illustrations are strange and beautiful, with distinctive shapes and an arresting use of color, negative space and red hearts both figuring prominently in their design.

Whimsical delight.