Where Are You Now?

by Tyler Clark Burke

Overview

Just as the sun sets to make way for the rising moon, or snowflakes melt only to return as fog and mist, things that disappear in nature often reappear in different forms. This picture book uses this simple but powerful metaphor of disappearance and reappearance as an entry point for talking with children about death.



Drawing examples from nature—seeds, stars, and even the growth of children into adults—this book provides a bright and joyful framework for readers to begin to understand the passing of a loved one, or to help shape difficult conversations around death.



Written in accessible verse and illustrated in bright washes of watercolor, this is a beautiful, gentle book that invites young readers to find comfort in transformation. Built around the idea that death can be thought of as a kind of regeneration, the narrative shows how a loved one’s presence can be felt in meaningful and enduring ways.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781771473675
Publisher:	Owlkids Books
Publication date:	10/15/2019
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	440,669
Product dimensions:	9.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

TYLER CLARK BURKE is an award-winning creative director, writer, illustrator, and artist, and author of Bill Bowerbird and the Unbearable Beak-Ache. She co-founded the acclaimed record label Three Gut Records, and continues to work creatively with musicians. Tyler lives in Toronto with her husband and two children, Rooksby and Hugo.

Editorial Reviews

"It will no doubt prove a wonderful read-aloud experience with its short text, enticing colors and positive message, encouraging both children and adults to look at the world a little differently."

Canadian Review of Materials

"This insightful and thought-provoking title can be shared with people of all ages."

Booklist

"This insightful and thought-provoking title can be shared with people of all ages."

Booklist

11/15/2019

K-Gr 2—What happens to things when they disappear from view; are they gone forever? A shooting star blazes across the night sky, fading into the darkness as it travels. Later, a seed transforms into a tree, completely unrecognizable from its initial form. Still later, a child's visage ceases to be visible until it is found in the face of that child's child. Finally, the sun departs from the sky to make way for the moon, reflecting the sun's brilliant light. Matter cannot be created or destroyed: it can only change forms. Such is the case for each object discussed in this book, from the fiery shooting star to the loving parent. The narrator of this story speaks in poetic phrases, moving from the question of where an item was to where it now is. Though the seed is gone, a tree stands in its place; though the sun has set, it can be seen in its reflection off of the moon. Each page features a short, four-line poem on one side with a colorful, descriptive illustration on the other. Watercolor images enhance the emotional backbone of this story, their rich layers of color mirroring innate human feelings. While at first glance this story is about transitions, it also serves as a foundation for discussing loss with young children. VERDICT This is an important book for any child experiencing the loss of a loved one, especially if it is the first such occasion in their life.—Mary Lanni, formerly at Denver Public Library

School Library Journal

2019-07-14
A study of impermanence and transformation.

Do shooting stars disappear? Or do they transform into something else? In Burke's opening spread, a figure admires a shooting star that streaks across the blue, purple, and red sunset. As the fleeting light disappears, the words read, "Where are you now, star?" And so the conversation begins. From the vastness of the shooting star in the sky to the tininess of the grains of rocks and sea glass it can transform into, the star becomes part of the Earth. As a hand reaches to catch a snowflake, water's journey—as fog and mist when it swirls "up to the clouds" and rolls "down to the hills"—is explored. But transformation does not happen only in inanimate objects. It happens in plants, like the seed that grows into a tree, which bears apples, and in humans, when, "dreams intertwined / Slow days, quickly past." The verses and illustrations are vague enough to allow wide-ranging conversations. Without any specificity in human characters' identity—only silhouettes are displayed—exchanges about death are prompted as the narrator says, "I see you now, still— / Even though you aren't here." With sumptuous illustrations and thought-provoking verses, Burke's meditation can serve as a quiet bedtime story or a deep conversation starter.

Worthy of contemplation. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews

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