Susan Gal’s illustrations in Joyful Song: A Naming Story, written by Lesléa Newman, are full of vibrant colors — as well they should be. The book is a celebration of a new baby’s arrival, and of welcoming her into a family and a community — both of which are portrayed in an effortlessly inclusive way, with the illustrations extending cues in the text. As the title indicates, joy is in order. But when I took a spread-by-spread look at the illustrations, what struck me was the use of space in the storytelling.

The amount of space being taken up by the illustrations varies constantly. Sometimes the white space framing the art tells us where to focus — for instance, in the first illustration after the title page, the loving gathering of two new siblings and their pets is the foreground; the moms, standing against narrower swaths of color, are hanging back and letting the younger family members bond. Sometimes the white space serves as a road. And sometimes it lets us know we’re moving from one moment to another: within one spread, big sibling Zachary might talk to a neighbor in a vignette, and then, after a white-space pause, keep walking with rest of the family.

Once we get inside the synagogue, with its beautiful stained-glass windows affecting the shape and tone of the light, there’s less white space — though on most spreads, there’s still some, making room for the text to be placed just right for pacing. See especially the cascading little paragraphs that culminate in the big reveal of the baby’s name: “...Aliza Shira which means ‘joyful song.’” When we were outside for most of the book’s beginning, we were largely seeing wide views of Zachary-and-family’s world, but inside the synagogue the views get closer, and we zoom in first on Zachary and baby Aliza, and then on the whole happy family standing with the rabbi. The latter image is on the only spread that’s completely color-saturated, giving the sense that in this moment, these people are each other’s whole world. And they still are later when we zoom back out as the outside world tries to intrude in the form of a rain shower; the family remains a unit, and keeps smiling, under the brightly colored canopy of Mommy’s shawl.

You get the sense that they’ll still be smiling, whatever happens come award season. But maybe those vibrant colors on Joyful Song’s cover will include some silver or gold.

[Read The Horn Book Magazine review of Joyful Song]