Lynne Rae Perkins, an award-winning Suttons Bay author and illustrator, has released a new book, “The Museum of Everything.” The book, a kind of map — or as publisher Harper Collins calls it, an invitation to go on “an imagination-fueled journey through the living museum that surrounds us all — is the museum.” And the museum has in it, among other things, a cloud, a shadow, an island that could be a stone in a puddle. 

How does one think of something like this? Perkins says the book started when she stood on a hill on a tiny island and could see its edges. She could see the shore, the ocean surrounding it. From that came “The Museum of Everything,” which is about ways of seeing, ways of thinking.  

Why not have a museum with a cloud? Well, no reason. 

And it’s delightful to think of a museum that’s not like any museum you’ve ever seen. “The Museum of Everything” is a book for young readers, but adults will like it, too. It’s like a poem with pictures. 

“Most children’s books are also something adults can appreciate,” Perkins says. “Editors like that. Because they know the adults are going to be the ones reading it to the children.” Anyone who has ever read to children knows this is true. Some books get hidden in the sofa cushions and some are cherished. 

Described as a “poetic sorceress” by The New York Times, Perkins has a subtle sense of humor and lovely, surprising sense of the world around her. In her book “Nuts to You,” one of the characters is a squirrel in the park near her house, a squirrel with whom she converses. We believe this is a real conversation.  

“A book doesn’t start with just one thing,” Perkins says. “It happens with something small, then I forget about it. Then something else happens and it comes together.”

In this week’s Northern Express, Leelanau Ticker’s sister publication, Leelanau writer Kathleen Stocking sits down with Perkins to find out more about the dioramas, pictures, and words in this new book, in what she calls “The Museum Inside Author Lynne Rae Perkins’ Mind.” Read the full story in the virtual Express, or pick up a free copy at newsstand locations (including grocery stores) in 14 counties across the north.

Lynne Perkins will have a book celebration at Horizon Books in downtown Traverse City at the end of this month. “It will be outside,” she says. “There will be long tables. And supplies. And when kids come, I’ll make dioramas with them.” The event is scheduled for 1pm June 26.

To learn more about Lynn Rae Perkins, check out the author’s website.