Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Part mindfulness meditation, part delirious flight of fancy, this unusual picture book encourages readers to pause, quiet down, and take in the world, senses open. In each spread, the rhyming text offers a suggestion to notice the worlds within worlds that reveal themselves when a watcher simply observes: "Be still, life, be still/ like the surface of a pond/ and you'll see the fish/ swim through/ the clouds and the fronds!" In subsequent spreads, readers are called to quiet their bodies to feel their hearts move, and even, in a nearly solid-black spread, imagine the mysterious "something" that can be sensed, even in seeming "nothing." The rhyming lines occasionally scan awkwardly, and the contrasting, abstract concepts-the something in nothing; the idea that "everything is still and moving"-may hit home most with an older audience. But Hale (the Who Did It books) creates winsome expressions in the plants, fruits, and creatures that fill her sherbet-colored pages, and the text's surprising blend of profound questions and wild goofiness forms a unique invitation to delight in life and its smallest wonders. Ages 4-up. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
Review by Horn Book Review
Poetic and contemplative yet sometimes silly, a hand-lettered text with rhymes and near-rhymes urges readers to "Be Still" and promises extraordinary sensual perceptions: seeing a shadow grow, hearing leaves sway, feeling a heart beating, smelling rain, and more. The kid-appealing illustrations--with simple stylized shapes, bold colors, and thick black outlines--further encourage imagination and observation. (c) Copyright 2019. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
In casual rhyme, this picture book extols the values of stillness and observation.Speaking directly to readers, author/illustrator Hale delivers a passionate, can-you-believe-how-good-it-is-to-be-alive homage to living. Focusing on the natural world, she describes the possibilities of what can be experienced with the senses when readers become still: seeing the shadow of "a small snail snoozing" growing long as time passes, feeling "the sun's light," hearing the "tapping of tiny mice feet," and, whimsically, the song of fruit in a bowl: "you might hear the hum / of a crisp summer's apple." The narrative's heartfelt exhortation to, and inclusion of, its readers ("you are also a part of the wonderfulness of life!") saves it from the tired sanctimony that can bog down themes of this type. The rambunctiously designed illustrations of bugs, plants, fruit, snails, and other aspects of the natural world are done in simple, warm, unshaded colors and black crayonlike outlines that echo and support the narrative's ingenuousness, as does the hand-lettered text. It doesn't take itself too seriouslysome segments are endearingly silly, especially the asides of some of the critters voicing their opinions.What sets this book apart from so many others with the same theme of the nourishment derived from connecting with life is its infectious joy, delivered simply and sincerely. (Picture book. 3-9) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
