★ 02/16/2015
Young (The House Baba Built), writing in tribute to his late wife, builds a series of couplets that reveal human passion reflected in the magnificence of the natural world. "Should you be a river," he starts, "I'll race your rapids downstream." Young's spreads, which occasionally expand via gatefolds, combine torn fragments of photographs and crisply cut, stylized paper figures that suggest the brushstrokes of Chinese calligraphy. The human forms are seen against images of running water, trees, flame, smoke, and clouds, and the compositions seem to gather strength as the pages turn. In one spread, torn pieces of photographs of clouds ("Should you be a cloud, I'll imagine you in countless fantastic forms") resolve into a horse that dwarfs a tiny cutout of a human. In the next ("Should you be thunder, I'll hold my breath, hands over my ears"), the torn white edges of the photographs become bolts of lightning streaking down from the steely sky. The heartfelt sentiments are unafraid to address real anguish and pain ("Should you be a waterfall, I'll scream when you plunge"), and those who understand Young's loss or who have known what it is to love unreservedly will be drawn to his testament. Ages 3–up. Agent: Christa Heschke, McIntosh & Otis. (Apr.)
* "The heartfelt sentiments are unafraid to address real anguish and pain, and those who understand Young's loss or who have known what it is to love unreservedly will be drawn to his testament."—Publishers Weekly, starred review
* "Young's offering will touch a wide range of readers, with both parents and children taking something special away."—Booklist, starred review
"This book is a true work of the heart."—School Library Connection
"The images are stunning...[and] some of the pages unfold in unique ways to support the narrative."—School Library Journal
"Mystifying and ultimately uplifting, this book challenges all of us to seek out the dizzying scope of love."—Kirkus Reviews
01/01/2015
Gr 4 Up—Unconditional love is filled with ups and downs, trials and tribulations. In this personal poem, Young explores how love impacts our lives. Using elements of nature, he takes readers through water, earth, fire, and wind in relation to love. Each line of text flows naturally into the content of the next page. The images are stunning, with a mix of photography, cut paper, and calligraphy. Vibrant colors of earth tones will appeal to readers' eyes. Some of the pages unfold in unique ways to support the narrative. For example, "Should you be a waterfall, I'll scream when you plunge" has a page that unfolds vertically to give the effect of plunging down the falls. The illustrations also offer various perspectives; the art for "I'll dream you a vision of towering trees" is cut paper rising toward photographs of tree tops to give the effect of tree trunks stretching to the sky. The author's note is an important piece of this book because it tells the backstory of the poem's creation. It reveals how conversation, writing, art, and collaboration can be a healing process when faced with loss. This title would be an interesting pairing with books about healing, love, or comfort such as Georgia Heard's This Place I Know: Poems of Comfort (Candlewick, 2002) or Joyce Sidman's What the Heart Knows (Houghton Harcourt, 2013).—Andy Plemmons, David C. Barrow Elementary, Athens, GA
2015-01-20
Startling collages of torn photos, cut paper and calligraphy seek to describe love's many forms and feelings through comparisons found in nature. Ripped photographs and Matisse-like figures and shapes converge, overlap and cohere to create stirring compositions that call for scrutiny. Young readers might feel a bit disoriented by jagged, kaleidoscopic artwork, as dizzying and confounding as love itself. Fold-out panels contribute to an ongoing sense of playful mystery that dances across these spreads depicting nature's swirls, undulations and power. Thunderstorms, waves, rain storms, clouds, fire and forests surge. Young's poetry, both puzzling and poignant, follows the flow of the pictures, dragging eyes across the illustrations' challenging, serried landscape. Some lines seem to speak to a lover rather than a child, leaving little readers out. "Should you be a great forest, I'll caress your branches and make you sway"; "Should you be a gentle wave, I'll wait for you to lap my shores." The aching vulnerability and deep-seated love evident in every line, however, echoes the unabashed love children transmit to the world (their parents, friends, teachers, coaches) around them. An author's note and the poem printed again in its entirety provide clarity at the book's close. Mystifying and ultimately uplifting, this book challenges all of us to seek out the dizzying scope of love. (Picture book. 10 & up)
