She Threw the Rope & Pulled the Lake
(Alina said, Anita drew)

“something is not afraid of something”

Alina thought and spoke. Anita listened and drew. And so this weave of Alina’s words and Anita’s drawings came together. That Alina was two at the time, and Anita her mother, is relevant. Equally relevant is the plane of parity on which their everyday companionship unfolds. She Threw the Rope & Pulled the Lake is what happens when an adult listens to a child closely and takes her musings, observations, and inquiries seriously.

The book begins along the angle of Alina’s vision, in relation to a home’s windowsills and the stacked streetscapes of Istanbul. Anita’s line, in the spirit of Franciszka Themerson and Harold and the Purple Crayon, then carries us across the page and over the arch of a day, encompassing moments of inspiration and parental energy dips, playground excursions, the quivering autonomy of bedtime, and the bond established through breastfeeding.