A gift for readers of Bob Gill’s The Present. Thanks to The Present, Min Guhong received another gift.

Translator’s Note

The Present is another picture book by Bob Gill introduced by Boisforêt, following The Concert, Dogs Are Just Like Us, and What Colour is Your World? Its original edition was also published by Corraini Edizioni, the Italian publisher and art gallery.

The book first appeared in 2010, when the iPhone and iPad were sweeping the world and the digital age was getting fully underway. At a time when people lined up outside shops for every new electronic device and “unboxing” videos were becoming popular on social media, this book conveyed the value of imagination and sharing, rather than material possessions.

Imagination is a central theme in Bob Gill’s work, spanning words and images. His illustrations, with their uninhibited lines and colors, and his concise, witty sentences always lead us into worlds that are at once familiar and unexpected. These qualities are fully present in this book, too. Two weeks before his birthday, Arthur finds a box in his father’s closet. Watching his imagination take flight as he looks at it takes us back to childhood.

What is notable is that Arthur’s imaginings do not simply enumerate his desires. When he imagines a cake, he also imagines the pleasure of a birthday party; when he imagines a sailboat, an adventure on a pond; when he imagines a volleyball, being with friends. Bob Gill delicately captures relationships and experiences that matter more than the objects themselves. Particularly meaningful, too, is the ending, in which imagination leads to sharing. Arthur ultimately donates his birthday present to poor children. The maxim at the beginning of the book—“An apple given to someone else is worth more than an apple I eat”—resonates warmly after we close it.

Around the time I wrote this, our baby, born two days before Christmas, was our most precious gift for a little over a day. Our love was the only gift we could give our baby. This makes the book’s message all the more special to me. Throughout our lives, we give and receive countless gifts: gifts marking special days, gifts expressing gratitude or apology, and sometimes gifts for no reason at all… At each of those moments, what we exchange is ultimately not an object, but our thoughts for the person who will encounter the gift, is it not?

As our baby led us to think again about life and death, I hope this book offers us a chance to think again about what a gift is, and what sharing means. I hope, too, that the book itself will remain another gift: a story and a gesture of love cherished for a long time.

December 2024
Min Guhong