March 15, 2021
A four-season round, observed in stylized scenes and 20 haiku-like poems. Pappa is loose with her syllable count but otherwise follows the form's conventional antecedents as she reflects on a young child's outdoor encounters and activities: "Beautiful day! / Teach me, too, how to fly, / mother swallow." Appealing though the spare and precise poetry may be, younger audiences will likely be more strongly drawn by the serene, harmonious pictures. As in her eye-catching illustrations for Roxane Marie Galliez's Thank You, Miyuki (2020), Ratanavanh sets an Asian-presenting protagonist with pink cheeks against likewise stylized, mostly natural, flat backdrops constructed using delicately transparent hues and bright Japanese washi patterns. A paper boat and a flight of origami "wild geese" add further atmospheric notes. Though the child climbs a ladder in one scene to color in a rainbow and in another hangs little dolls in a Christmas tree, in general they are small enough to peer from a poppy at an equally tiny spring lamb, sit on a dahlia with a pair of "happy snails" in autumn, and, in one droll summer scene, make a lazy comment about the grasshopper on the nose of a mountainous, napping dog--oblivious to the comparatively giant butterfly perched on their own. A little thin but the lovely art rewards lingerers. (Picture book. 6-8)
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October 22, 2021
Grades 1-3 In this beautiful picture book dedicated to celebrating the seasons, whimsical illustrations join with lovely poems inspired by the haiku form. Readers tag along with a child who enjoys the seasons as he comes together with nature. Featuring everything from a small tree house to the clouds in the sky to sandy beaches, poems celebrate birds, butterflies, fruits, trees, snow, and the changing of one season to the next. Children will love seeing the fantastical feats the young character partakes in: painting a rainbow in the sky, sleeping next to a giant dog, helping chipmunks jump through a hoop, braving the seas on a paper boat. Each poem is made up of three lines that do not always follow the classic haiku meter, instead following varied patterns. The simplicity and beauty of the poems, together with the colorful and fantastical illustrations, which utilize a color palette of yellows, reds, oranges, and blues, will help readers see nature in a different light and inspire them to try their hand at writing their own poems.
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