A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro
A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro
A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro
A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro
A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro
A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro

A Garden of Creatures by Sheila Heti and Esmé Shapiro

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Canadian Author

Ages: 4–8 years

A tender and deeply moving picture book about loss and the big questions it leaves behind from New York Times bestselling author Sheila Heti and acclaimed illustrator Esmé Shapiro.

Two bunnies and a cat live happily together in a beautiful garden. But when the big bunny passes away, the little bunny is unsure how to fill the void she left behind. A strange dream prompts her to begin asking questions: Why do the creatures we love have to die, and where do we go when we die? How come life works this way? With the wisdom of the cat to guide her, the little bunny learns that missing someone is a way of keeping them close. And together they discover that the big bunny is a part of everything around them – the grass, the air, the leaves – for the world is a garden of creatures.

With its meditative text, endearing illustrations and life-affirming message, A Garden of Creatures reveals how the interconnectedness of nature and the sweetness of friendship can be a warm embrace even in the darkest times.

Sheila Heti is the author of eleven books, including the novels Pure Colour, Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? She was named one of "The New Vanguard" by The New York Times; a list of fifteen writers from around the world who are "shaping the way we read and write fiction in the 21st century." The Washington Post called her “one of the freshest, funniest and most ingenious humans writing today… one of our best living authors.” Her books have been translated into twenty-seven languages. She is a 2025 Guggenheim Fellow.

She was born on Christmas Day, 1976, in Toronto, to Jewish-Hungarian immigrants, and is the sister of the comic David Heti. She lives in Toronto.

Esmé Shapiro was born in Los Angeles, California. most of her childhood was spent roaming around the dry brush and blossomed succulents in Laurel Canyon. In 2010, she ventured east to attend the Rhode Island school of design in Providence, Rhode Island. She now splits her time between the Hudson Valley and New York City. Her favorite place to paint is in her studio at her farm house in the Catskills, where she surrounds herself with many animals and flowers. She lives with her husband, Daniel Kaufman, who is a filmmaker, and their two scruffy dogs, Chebini and Olympia. She will never say no to a bagel.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Esmé is a past recipient of both the Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship and the SILA West 53 Gold Award-Phillip Hayes Scholarship. She has exhibited at The Society of Illustrators and her work has been featured in Taproot, Quill and Quire, and Plansponsor Magazines. Her first book, OOKO, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award and was # 1 on the National Post Best Seller's List.

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About the Illustrator

Esmé Shapiro

Esmé was born in Los Angeles, California. most of her childhood was spent roaming around the dry brush and blossomed succulents in Laurel Canyon. In 2010, she ventured east to attend the Rhode Island school of design in Providence, Rhode Island. She now splits her time between the Hudson Valley and New York City. Her favorite place to paint is in her studio at her farm house in the Catskills, where she surrounds herself with many animals and flowers. She lives with her husband, Daniel Kaufman, who is a filmmaker, and their two scruffy dogs, Chebini and Olympia. She will never say no to a bagel.

A graduate of the Rhode Island School of Design, Esmé is a past recipient of both the Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship and the SILA West 53 Gold Award-Phillip Hayes Scholarship. She has exhibited at The Society of Illustrators and her work has been featured in Taproot, Quill and Quire, and Plansponsor Magazines. Her first book, OOKO, was nominated for a Governor General's Literary Award and was # 1 on the National Post Best Seller's List.

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