Our origin stories do not always come wrapped up in neat packages. But as one distinct creature learns in this moving picture book, every one of us is worthy of a story, even if we have to write it ourselves.
Little Wutaryoo has a long, fluffy tail, big ears and little horns. She is the only one of her kind, and doesn't know her name. When others ask "Wutaryoo?" she doesn't know the answer and asks the question back. In this way, she learns her friends' origin stories. Wutaryoo worries that she has no story of her own. "What am I?" she asks herself. "Who are my people? Where did I come from?" Surely, she thinks, she has a story, too. And so Wutaryoo sets out on an epic geographic and personal quest to find herself. When she comes to what she believes must be the beginning of the world, she thinks, "My story must be over that last hill." A story does wait beyond the hill, but it's not what she expects.
Nilah Magruder (How to Find a Fox; M.F.K.) approaches the idea of being a "cultural orphan" from the perspective of a Black American whose family was brought in violence to North America so long ago that they no longer have ties to Africa. Although there are no indications that Wutaryoo has a similarly brutal history, she does share the experience of not knowing where she fits into her own landscape. Magruder's digital illustrations are replete with cool purples, blues and grays. The sense of space is broad and deep, with natural features and friendly characters populating foreground and background. Wutaryoo shows readers that identity is shaped not only by where we come from but by who we are right now. --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor