Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. Red. Neal Porter Books, 2021.

The die-cut art in Laura Vaccaro Seeger's Red drives the story of a lost red fox trying to find his way home to his family. In this double-page spread, a compassionate girl catches the eyes of the miserable fox, who sits tricked and trapped in a wire cage. With a die-cut on every page, Red exemplifies what Alaca describes a book "with parts omitted" (64). Thoughtfully placed, each die-cut becomes part of an image on one page and another on the page turn. Alaca explains, "the material aspects of a book create an atmosphere that regulates reader's expectations and responses to a narrative" (59). Seeger's die-cuts capture the reader's interest as they marvel, how did this become that, and what will happen next?

In this spread, the die-cut located on the verso connects the burnt grass in the previous spread, painted in tones of orange and yellow, to the belt of the girl's coat. On the recto, the die-cut in the center of the cage forms the shape of a window. Looking through the die-cut reveals the red tones of the fox's coat. At this moment in the narrative, the reader is routing for the fox, not only for him to be reunited with his family, but, first, to break out of the cage. The fox has travelled too far, with too much determination, to end his journey "caged." Turning the page, the reader's emotions are validated: the red tones of the fox's coat became the detail of the fur of the fox's pointed ear as he howls in "rage."

Works Cited

Alaca, Ilgim Veryeri. “Materiality in Picturebooks.” The Routledge Companion to Picture Books, edited by Bettina Kümmerling-Meibauer, Routledge, 2018, pp. 59-68.

Seeger, Laura Vaccaro. Red. Neal Porter Books, 2021.