[For those born on July 29th] A picture book to lighten your heart: 'When You Grow Up' - A story born on your birthday

Hello. I am Take Gorilla, a 'Birthday Picture Book Sommelier' who introduces a picture book born on each day of the year.

To you, who welcomes this special day, July 29th

First thing in the morning, the sound of cicadas taps on the window.
Heat haze shimmers on the road, and if you look up, deep in the sky, cumulonimbus clouds are stretching their backs.
By evening, thunder might rumble in the distant sky.

You were born in this season when the light is most intense and the scent of life rises up.

Born under the midsummer sun, you are surely someone who can instantly brighten up a room.
You can talk to anyone easily, and even if you aren't in the center of the circle, people gather around you before you know it.
Like a sunflower, you are straightforward and warm.

But you yourself should know best.
That behind that brightness, you are quietly holding a small box that you let no one open.

On the way home after the lively time has ended, when you are alone.
You surely don't dislike that silence that suddenly descends.
In fact, you feel that it is in those moments that you can quietly face your true self.

Bright, lighthearted, and sociable.
And yet, deep in your heart, you hold a deep, clear lake of contemplation.
It is for you, who is like that, that there is a picture book I want you to encounter today.

Birthday picture book for July 29th: 'When You Grow Up'

'When you grow up, what songs will you like?'
'When you grow up, will the sky be the same shade of blue?'

A narrator with a quiet and warm gaze gently poses questions to the 'you' in front of them.
This picture book begins more like a poem than a story with a plot.

Eventually, the story leads the boy and girl into 'a forest full of unexpected things'
—that is, life itself.

There are high walls, deep forests, and seas that must be crossed.
It is by no means just a sweet utopia.
This book looks straight at the tears that cannot be avoided in life and the loneliness that cannot be told to anyone.

'Even so,' the narrator believes.
Even so, the birds at dawn will begin to sing again.
Beyond hundreds of millions of nights, a 'today' that happens only once begins.

Why is this book for July 29th?
It is because the illustrator, Koshiro Hata, is an artist who has no equal when it comes to painting that clear summer blue sky.

The season of your birth, when the light is most intense in the year, and the summer air overflowing from the pages overlap quietly.

Because you are an adult now, both the path you have walked and the path ahead suddenly feel precious.
It is that kind of picture book.

You can see the details of the definitive edition I introduced today, which I want adults to read, here.

The reason why it deeply permeates an adult's heart every time you turn the page

As a birthday picture book sommelier, when I first opened this book, what struck me most was the beauty of the structure where the words and the pictures play out separate stories.

It is said that the origin of this book was a short poem that Kazumi Yumoto wrote on a single postcard for charity after the Great East Japan Earthquake.

In response to those quiet words with so much white space, Koshiro Hata did not draw 'illustrations'.
Instead of tracing the words, he gently launched another story that progresses only through pictures.

That is why, deep within the pages where gentle questions are lined up, the landscape in the pictures is often tense.
A desolate, deserted landscape, a churning sea.
These are honest metaphors for the wounds and pain that are unavoidable in life.

It does not sugarcoat things.
First, it sits silently beside your loneliness and anxiety.
That is why I believe this picture book works as a charm for adults.

Eventually, as you turn the pages, another figure comes to nestle in the world where you were alone.

The two jump over high walls, pass through forests, and run toward the sea.
That sense of speed teaches you, not through words but through your body, what it feels like to 'live in resonance with someone, transcending loneliness'.

And, in the gaps between the words, there is a blue bird.
The bird that was drawn all alone on the cover eventually flaps its wings into the dawn sky, this time in a flock.

When you reach that page, you are suddenly made to realize.
That you, too, are kept alive within countless invisible connections.

Finally, one episode from the production.

It seems the final sentence of this picture book was not in the original manuscript.
At the finishing stage, after finishing the drawings, Mr. Hata asked, 'Are there no words to go here?', and Ms. Yumoto gently added it as if guided by the pictures.

That quiet heat, which was tense right up until the moment it became words, dwells in this one line.

A charm for living true to yourself that this picture book teaches you

This picture book never once says, 'Become a respectable adult'.

'What kind of songs do you like?'
'What kind of place is it where you decide in your heart that this is your place?'

It does not force answers on you, but simply, quietly, layers open-ended questions.
I believe each of those questions is an expression of deep trust that 'Your life is yours to choose and live as you are'.

Even if there are nights when you shed tears you cannot tell anyone about.
Even if you have begun to forget that fresh sensitivity of your childhood.
This picture book will gently create a place for you in your heart.

On the way home after acting cheerful, when you want to face your loneliness quietly alone.

When you want to gently open that small box you let no one open. This book will surely be right by your side.

When you finish reading it, the tension in your shoulders will suddenly melt away.
'Growing up isn't so bad after all,' you might think.

As if you can wholeheartedly affirm the place where you are standing right now.
You should be wrapped in such a warm sense of security.

A book to accompany your day, every morning

Our 'Birthday Picture Book 365' is a project that selects and delivers just one picture book for each of the 365 days.

A book born on that day.
A book that gently nestles up to the color of the sky and the warmth of the wind on that day.
For you, an adult living today to the fullest, we choose with all our hearts every morning.

In the midst of busy days, I want you to stop for just a moment and have time to care for yourself.
I entrust that wish to each page of paper, and put it into words like this.

If these words today have reached your heart, even a little, as you do your best.

Instead of a celebration, please gently press the Like button at the bottom of the screen to let me know.
That single tap of yours is the greatest gift for me as I choose stories for someone else again tomorrow.

Happy birthday. Finally, a message for you.

\ Here is the birthday picture book introduced today /

Once again, to you who were born on July 29th.
Happy birthday.

Even if the path you walk ahead looks like a deep forest on some days.
When the night breaks, the little birds will begin to sing again.
By your side, there are many connections that cannot be seen with the eyes.

May this picture book become a book like a charm that gently stays by your side on your journey ahead.

If there is someone special around you whose birthday is today.
Instead of words of celebration, please gently share this article with them.
Just by doing that, their day might become a little softer.

I am choosing a book to stay by your side every morning from tomorrow on as well.
If you don't want to miss it, please gently follow and come to see me again.

May today be a gentle day filled with your smiles.

See you again with tomorrow's birthday picture book.

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