Everyone Walks Away

Everyone walks away from Frank, including Tilly, Paul, and Milan. We don’t know why they left him, but we do know Frank is alone, and everyone else is having fun. This has always been the case. Until one day, Frank goes home and boils his tears. He adds a cup of sugar and stirs for hours. He leaves the window open, and a sweet breeze attracts Tilly, Paul, and Milan to Frank’s home. He sets the table with a delicious treat and invites the others to join him. Maybe things will be different now.

Eva Lindstrom is a Swedish author and illustrator with multiple nominations for the Hans Christian Andersen Award. In Everyone Walks Away, Lindstrom creates a world where dogs and humans play tennis and cast sidelong glances at each other. The illustrations are soft and muted with orange and gray-blue backgrounds. They help create a tense friendship dynamic underlying the text. It is an odd story about loneliness and wanting to belong, told in a way that perhaps only the very young could truly appreciate.