is was by Deborah Freedman

 I've been thinking about this book for a while and I'm still not sure what my conclusion is - other than that it's a book that inspires a lot of thought.

Deborah Freedman's colorful and exquisite watercolors take readers through a dreamy exploration of time, beginning with a cloudy sky, flecked with hazes of gray, purple, and blue, hiding a patch of brighter blue. "This sky is the same sky that was blue, but now is..." that turns to rain. The rain becomes puddles that attract a chipmunk and a yellow bird, then a fox and a bee. The creatures come together, then separate, the singing of the bird replaced by buzzing, replaced by sunshine, that translates to sunflowers. Glowing yellows fill the page and a hawk swoops in, sending the chipmunk fleeing to hide in a rock wall just in time. Now we see greens, a spider's web goes from full and new to tattered, pink flowers bloom on a nearby tree, and a child walks up the hill through the long grass. They swing in the blue, "is was, is was, is was" then go home through the blazing pinks and purples of sunset, where there was once blue sky, and eventually the chipmunk sits on the porch, watching the stars come out in the dark blue night sky.

This is a truly beautiful book, but I have a hard time picturing reading it aloud in storytime or how one would use it in a school context. It seems like an illustrated concrete poem in some ways, so perhaps it would flow well with a lesson on poetry, but it's almost a meditation on time and the cycle of life, so something that older readers might appreciate.

Verdict: This is beautiful, but will not necessarily appeal to the same audience that appreciates Freedman's more conventional stories with clear plots. It might be a lovely accompaniment for an adult class on watercolors or meditation though.

ISBN: 9781534475106; Published May 2021 by Atheneum; Review copy provided by publisher