''Beautiful Solitude'' (, which literally means "Lonely and Wonderful,") is a

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

, authored and illustrated by

Jimmy Liao Jimmy Liao (; pen name: , ; born 15 November 1958) is a Taiwanese illustrator as well as a picture book writer. His Chinese pen name, 幾米, is phonetically derived from his English given name Jimmy. Biography After graduating from Chinese Cultu ...

, completed in 2003. The book was created when Jimmy Liao was diagnosed with

leukemia Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...

. That time was marked by feelings of gloom, and during his cancer treatment, he lived alone: both enjoying and enduring the accompanying loneliness. At that time, Jimmy used pictures as an outlet and a source for hope. Throughout the picture book, Jimmy uses dark colors and a monotone drawing style to help demonstrate his feelings of solitude and wonder. The language in the book is simple, but touching.

References

{{Reflist 2003 children's books Picture books by Jimmy Liao