The richness of this digital collection offers scholars rare opportunity to examine a wide range of preliminary materials in the evolution of a picturebook. All of these resources encourages a sense of discovery; offer an opportunity to explore the literary, artistic, and design sense that went into the creation of this work; and enlarge and enhance interpretation and response. Although the materials themselves do not necessarily reveal the intent of the creator, they do allow us to trace changes in the creative work. They also encourage us to speculate.

One of the most obvious speculations in relation to Kisses from Rosa is the extent to which the story relies on actual events from Mathers’ childhood. One wonders if the changes in text and illustration over a ten-year period were in an effort to more clearly capture those actual events or an attempt to establish just the right aesthetic distance to move from the literal to the literary.

Another key question has to do with mood and tone. How does Mathers manage to balance Rosa’s loneliness for her mother and apprehension in a strange environment with the enveloping warmth of her extended family? For instance, the opening pages of the story introduce readers to Rosa, invisible in the back seat of a taxi being driven into the Black Forest after having “cried herself to sleep.” The illustration is one of two that extends across the gutter into half of the right side of the double-page spread. Although it is the dark of night, in the forest, typical archetypes of fear, there is still a degree of “lightness” in the illustration. Thus, the allusion to the forest of fairy tales is both hinted at and softened at the same time. The vertical lines of the bare trees allow a lovely blue light in the sky to shine through. The golden glow from the headlights points into the story, and a friendly-looking red fox with bright white markings leads the way. The white border and the text on the right quadrant of the page also “lighten” the mood and convey a sense of warmth and calm rather than fear and foreboding.

It is interesting to compare this illustration with the only other one that extends across the center binding of the book. This second across-the-page illustration brings the story full circle, taking Rosa from the country back to her mother and her home in the city. This picture begins halfway into the left-hand page and extends across the entire right page, away from the setting and the people we have come to know. The bright white snowy page is also in contrast to the darkness of the forest as we enter the story.