Review: Mizuto And The Wind

I’m a well-known advocate for the ability of picture books to relay messages of the heart, heavy and often indescribably unbearable ones, like grief. Mizuto and the Wind is such an example, a worthy conduit of emotion that is indescribably, beautiful. Because beneath the mantle of poignant suffering, there is a persistent uplifting whisper of hope.

Gifted wordsmith, Kaye Baillie drew inspiration for this stirring story after learning about a real-life Kaze no Denwa – Wind Phone – erected by Itaru Sasaki as a place of respite and recovery. Following the Great East Japan earthquake and subsequent horrific tsunami in 2011, Sasaki made his Wind Phone accessible to anyone who might benefit from visiting.

Tragedy often has the most benign and banal beginnings, which describes the morning Mizuto’s father farewelled him, leaving for work, never to return. Following the catastrophic destruction of the seaside township of Otsúchi, Mizuto and his mother are themselves swept up into an ocean of disbelief, grief and despair. His mother’s smile has lost its sparkle. His father’s garden lies in neglect. Silence overwhelms him until he hears about the Wind Phone. Could this be a way to find his missing father?

Unable to share his fevor, Mizuto’s mother remains at home while he sets off to find the phone booth on his own. He wades through the tangle of broken things that once were homes and dreams until he reaches the top of the hill. And there, in a garden awash with gentle breezes, Mizuto lifts the receiver and … connects.

Through the bridge the phone provides with the wispy clouds and lilting wind, Mizuto unites his grief and all the beautiful memories that formed his relationship with his father eventually finding an altered but calming peace. This in turn allows him to reconnect with his mother, reigniting her joy for living. Together they use the conduit of the Wind Phone to communicate with a loved one they have lost and also to maintain their love for him.

Baillie’s rendition of this observation of grief and our ability to assimilate and live with it is, to be frank, tear-inducing, but in the most resonant way. It is the voice of hope resounding louder than the sadness in this book that makes the whole experience a transformative joy. Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki’s stunning ink and watercolour illustrations elevate Mizuto’s story to what surely will be an award-winning classic, at home either in the class room or home library.

Considered use of colour, lighting and shade create an immaculate before and after visual narrative that alternatively pulses with offshore breezes and gut-wrenching desolation. When life and manmade things are gone, so too is the colour in Mizuto’s life. Form and purpose seep from the pages until all that is left is a ruin of black and white images and smudges of reality churning within a mess of heartache and confusion. Colour and hope though return, following Mizuto throughout the book as autumn leaves dancing on the breeze until hope, reinstated, remains in a sky hued in soft oranges and uplifting yellows.

Mizuto and the Wind truly is a masterpiece, eloquently relayed and sublimely executed that reminds us that the power of love and hope is as commanding as the forces of nature.

Highly recommended reading.

Title:  Mizuto And The Wind
Author:  Kaye Baillie
Illustrator:  Luisa Gioffre-Suzuki
Publisher:  MidnightSun Publishing, $29.99
Publication Date:  June 2023
Format: Hardcover
ISBN: 9781922858023
For ages:  6+
Type:  Picture Book

Buy the Book:  Boomerang Books, Booktopia