Before & After

The concept is simple: before and after, two frames, one page turn. A dirty cat — and then a sparkling clean one. Long hair — then short — then, way after, long again. A couple standing belly to belly, one of them visibly pregnant. Jean Jullien, the French graphic designer whose work appears in the New Yorker and the New York Times, brings his wit and bold, black-outlined illustration style to a board book that manages to be funny, thought-provoking, and genuinely surprising.