The Little Red Barn by Kim Crumrine

This is a review. The author is responsible for the opinions in the text.

A wonderful production of “The Magic Flute” is currently being performed at the Royal Opera House. It’s playful, thoroughly exciting and makes full use of the well-worn stage machinery. The choir consists of school children, bears and scouts, and after the break the two-person tent is set up. A sleepy scout comes out, then another and another. Then two more roll out and then a whole little patrol. The youngest children understand that there is a gap in the floor, but it’s still fun because we reveal the trick and because the thought of them all fitting in stimulates the imagination.

Kim Crumrine wants to raise a similar question of reasonableness with “The Little Red Barn,” which accommodates all the animals despite the fact that it is described as small. Crumrine lives in the USA and the book was first published in Italian and shows the ambition of the Lilla Pirat publishing house to bring the world to Sweden with books for the very little ones. Lilla Pirat has raised the standard for books with hardcovers and hard pages, and that is why it is also interesting when a book about which one can feel certain doubts is published by the publisher. In most cases, such products go unnoticed for the barbs of baby tooth rodents, but here it is interesting to ask how something that works in the opera doesn’t fare so well on the book page.

First of all The humor in “The Magic Flute” lies in the uncommented. Nobody says or sings anything about the tent. Nobody on stage questions the unreasonableness, but rather it is left to the audience. Such a scheme had worked in Crumrine’s book, but here the narrator cannot remain silent and rely on the slightly Dick Bruna-inspired images of the various animals squeezing through the gable door of the barn. The sheep come and the text reads: “Is there room for them in the little red barn too?” On the next page they have disappeared and are replaced by the text “Of course!” been replaced.

The other concern of the book is that what ultimately explains that all animals have their place is not found in an opposing relationship such as big and small, but in small and long. Crumrine’s final spread shows the warehouse from the side, the “steaming red warehouse” according to the text. But there is no crystal clear conflict with logic and reason like in the case of a small tent with unlimited space. Something that is both short and long, or light and heavy at the same time, can confuse us. Small and long are not equally a misconception, as small can be replaced by narrow in this context. The narrow gable and the narrow door. The thin and the tall are everywhere, there is nothing to take home or write about in a book. Although the book is not very long at all.

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