Spring for Sophie

by Yael Werber, Jen Hill (Illustrator)

Overview

From snowy days to gray skies, a little girl watches and waits and wonders, will spring ever come? And then one day…

Sophie listens and watches for the signs of spring. Day after day, the same snow is frozen outside her window and the skies above are as gray as the day before. And then Sophie thinks will spring ever come and how will I know it is here?

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481451345
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster/Paula Wiseman Books
Publication date:	02/21/2017
Pages:	32
Product dimensions:	10.10(w) x 10.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Yael Werber is a Massachusetts native and a 2009 graduate of Boston University where she graduated with honors with a degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. A former preschool teacher, Yael currently resides in a cozy red farmhouse in Plainfield, Vermont.

Jen Hill is the illustrator of The Boy with Pink Hair by Perez Hilton, and the author and illustrator of Percy and Tumtum: A Tale of Two Dogs. Jen’s work in children’s interactive media spans almost two decades. Her children’s television credits include Time Warp Trio, Home Movies, and Sesame Street. Jen also led a team of artists to create a symbol language and illustrated content for the Tango, a speech-generating device for nonverbal children. Jen is a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied children’s book illustration with David Macaulay. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Editorial Reviews

The precisely worded text is carefully crafted to help children slow down the pace and tune in to the natural world with all their senses, not just their sight. Hill’s evocative illustrations, done in gouache with “digital retouching,” invite viewers to linger over each scene. Color is used sparingly until the last few double-page spreads, when spring arrives. A possible read-aloud choice for primary-grade units on the senses, this picture book will resonate with all those who find themselves yearning for spring. — BOOKLIST

January 27, 2017 - Booklist online

"The quiet, almost lyrical exchanges between Sophie and her parents ... are reinforced by Hill's exquisite gouache paintings of a rural New England landscape. Simply lovely." Shelf Awaeness

3/22/17 - Shelf Awareness

In the middle of winter (a snowy, northern, rural winter), Sophie is ready for
spring. But in the end it’s Sophie herself who decides when spring
has finally arrived: she runs outside and catches raindrops on her tongue. “Now I
know spring is here...Because this is what spring tastes like!” The book progresses
nicely through the change in seasons; double-page spreads of the landscape vary
with pages of more action-filled vignettes. The happy busy-ness of a small child’s
world—making paper snowflakes, reading, fetching the mail, playing with the
family dog—is the secondary story here, recalling the child-centered picture
books of Charlotte Zolotow or Eve Rice. - The Horn Book

March/April 2017 - Horn Book Magazine

03/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—"When will spring be here?" Sophie asks. "The first way to tell if spring is coming is to listen for it," her mother replies. So Sophie listens. Werber's simple, lyrical text reflects the comfort and creeping pace of winter. As she waits for spring, Sophie uses each of her five senses to listen for the return of birdsong, feel the earth thawing, look for signs of green, sniff for damp earth, and taste spring raindrops. Hill's wonderful textured watercolor illustrations convey the chilly wonder of exploring a white and slate gray landscape and the snug warmth of family afternoons on a fleecy rug by the fire. In their drabber colors, Sophie and her family seem to melt in the periphery, while each spread centers on a splotch of vivid red somewhere on Sophie's figure. This ends with the last spread, where the red house is shadowy in the background while a jubilant Sophie catches raindrops in her yellow rain slicker. Readers will linger over the books scattered across the living room floor (including the illustrator's other works) and the spectrum of songbirds scattered in the bare branches. The real attraction, though, is the radiating sense of winter coziness and serenity. VERDICT Titles on the seasons and on the senses are always in high demand, and this artistic gem fills both niches.—Rachel Anne Mencke, St. Matthew's Parish School, Pacific Palisades, CA

School Library Journal

2016-12-26
A little girl uses all her senses to detect the signs of spring.Sophie is a fair-skinned preschooler with a brown pageboy. She lives with her family in a prosperous-looking rural community in what looks like the author's home state, Vermont. Hill's accomplished gouache paintings depict leafless trees, snow-covered ground, and a big, comfortable red house. Fanciful touches, such as a parent bluebird impossibly cuddling a baby in a snow-covered birdhouse, will appeal to children even if they are not strictly accurate. Sophie wants to "know how spring is coming." Her mother tells her to listen for bird song, and one day she hears "the first chirps." Her dad tells her to feel for soft, muddy ground underfoot; it takes a while, but finally she does. Then she watches for the snow to melt and waits "for the air…to smell like earth and rain." Each of these transformations takes its time, Hill varying layouts expertly to control the pace. Six vignettes of Sophie playing in the snow on one spread emphasize the passage of time; one full-bleed double-page spread stops it altogether. Together, words and pictures capture the feeling that spring will never come—and then it comes in a rush, trees leafing out in just the last few pages, when Sophie joyfully catches raindrops on her tongue: "this is what spring tastes like!" Rural and suburban readers in northern climes will find much to recognize. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews