Is Was
by Deborah Freedman; illus. by the author
Preschool, Primary    Atheneum    40 pp.    g
5/21    978-1-5344-7510-6    $17.99
e-book ed.  978-1-5344-7511-3    $10.99

Freedman’s ethereal picture book tackles the slippery nature of impermanence through simple observations of the natural world. A small yellow bird flits across a pale blue sky and into a sudden rain. Soon, though: “The same rain that was drips / is now for sips / and song.” The bird drinks from a small puddle as a chipmunk scurries by and a fox wanders in, while nearly translucent type appears to show what “is! is!” The spare, poetic text is expertly paced across the pages. With each page-turn, small creatures weave through subtly shifting terrain. A bird’s song ­disappears to make way for a bee’s buzzing, and the once-blue, once-rainy sky shifts again as the sun sets. Dappled watercolor illustrations deftly convey the blurred ­barriers between what is and what was, while the penciled details — a delicate spiderweb, a raptor’s talons — sharpen focus on the wonders of the natural world. At last, a family watches the day fade into an indigo night as the text reassures: “Still, this sky is / the same sky / that was.” A muted, meditative, transcendent picture book that invites readers to marvel at both the ephemeral and the enduring.

From the July/August 2021 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.