Shop Talk

and then it’s spring by Julie Fogliano, illustrated by Erin E. Stead (Roaring Brook Press, 2012)

The colors in the letters of the title move from brown to green, and it’s not too much of a surprise that the book’s general colors follow likewise. Like the little boy, dog, and turtle at the center of the book, readers have to wait through a lot of brown ground to see more colors. But Erin Stead’s woodblock and pencil illustrations always convey warmth, and the robin’s egg blue back pages are sometimes seen in the varied sky. The boy who begins bundled up in hat, muffler, and mittens ends up barefoot and swinging from a tire over grass and the beginnings of flowers and vegetables he planted, with a delight we feel he well deserves. A perfect book for those of us who wait and watch for winter’s end!

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