“Joseph Cornell’s icon­ic box­es now reside in muse­ums the world over, but where did the self-taught artist get his start? Flem­ing and Dubois endeav­or to answer that ques­tion in this account of the artist’s child­hood. Dubois’ charm­ing­ly old-fash­ioned paint­ings depict young Joey pick­ing up fas­ci­nat­ing objects around his home and neigh­bor­hood, which he keeps in an ever-grow­ing col­lec­tion. He picks up feath­ers, doll parts, scraps of paper, and any­thing that “sparked his imag­i­na­tion or delight­ed his eye,” and when he’s asked why he’d want such a thing, he always replies, “Who knows?” As Joey gets old­er, his col­lec­tion takes up more and more room in Dubois’ illus­tra­tions. Even­tu­al­ly, Joey starts to see con­nec­tions among all the mag­i­cal, fas­ci­nat­ing, and exot­ic objects, and when his fam­i­ly strug­gles with grief, he cre­ates some­thing whol­ly new and love­ly to bring them some joy, too. Fleming’s empha­sis on inspi­ra­tion, even from the most ordi­nary places, should empow­er lit­tle ones to make art of their own. An open­ing author’s note adds fur­ther details about Cor­nell and his art.” (Sarah Hunter, Book­list)