Review by Booklist Review
Gray, white, and sunny yellow mark the illustrations of this quiet and charming book. Heart shapes abound throughout, adding an entertaining seek-and-find element: dark clouds, pieces of the leaded-glass windows, a fence, and a giant slide and its shadow all form the shape of heart. In rhyming verse, a young girl tells of how her heart can be open wide and accepting, while, at other times, it is broken and shuttered from everything: Some days it's a puddle. / Some days it's a stain. / Some days it is cloudy / and heavy with rain. Both the cover and one inside illustration show her planting a heart-shaped seed that, when well tended, can grow large and full, blossoming in heart-shaped flowers. It is up to her how she feels, and whether to keep her heart closed or to open it up to possibilities. Though it leans more toward an adult sensibility, this title offers an opportunity for a heart-to-heart discussion with children about emotions.--Maryann Owen Copyright 2019 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Rhyming verse and sweet-tempered artwork by Luyken (The Book of Mistakes) explore childhood emotions through images of the heart. Children of different ages and colors are seen playing, exploring. When they're overtaken by sadness or loneliness, they find comfort in the company of others: "My heart is a window,/ my heart is a slide./ My heart can be closed/ or opened up wide." One remorseful-looking girl shows her mother a vase. It's broken-and so is her heart. A page turn reveals the restored vase on a table. The girl opens the blinds to let the sunshine in, finding that "broken can mend,/ and a heart that is closed/ can still open again." Fences, stains, and quiet whispers become metaphors for feelings. Accepting companionship heals and helps children grow: "Closed or open... I get to decide," the book finishes, with a spread of a smiling girl, arms thrown wide. Flashes of brilliant yellow illuminate smudgy black-and-white drawings, and heart forms can be found everywhere, in ironwork, tiny seedlings, and stars. The abstract nature of Luyken's meditation will draw readers receptive to thoughtful examination; others may be left puzzled. Ages 4-8. (Jan.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-This message of this quiet book should be shouted from the rooftops. The theme is elusive at first as are the soft, somewhat tentative pictures. The story begins with a heart in a garden waiting to be nurtured by a little girl. The poetic text describes the heart in a number of unexpected ways. It's a window that can be opened or closed and sometimes it is a puddle or a stain. These metaphorical descriptions move children away from the anatomical and utile aspects of the heart (the pumper of blood with chambers and ventricles, etc.) and offers the idea of the heart as a reflection of the child in the world. The final words carry a lot of power: "I get to decide." The illustrations are crafted with water-based inks and pencils and predominantly feature gray and yellow, dark and light. Throughout, the unifying visual element is a yellow heart in a variety of forms. This can be read to the very youngest of listeners, but even upper elementary children would benefit tremendously from the ideas in this book. Educators can also use this work to show students the different meanings for a single word and the artistic use of metaphor in writing. VERDICT This must-buy for librarians and teachers has myriad educational uses; it begs to be read aloud, and it is a masterful blending of text and illustration.-Joan Kindig, James -Madison University, Harrisonburg, VA © Copyright 2019. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
Grayscale monotype illustrations with warm yellow highlights illustrate Luykens lyrical text about love and emotion. The arts luminescence is an apt choice for a picture book about the heartnot the tangible, beating heart but the intangible, feeling one: My heart is a window, / my heart is a slide. / My heart can be closed / or opened up wide. Luykens decision to depict many children in minimal but varied settings as speakers of her first-person-singular text likewise enriches her project: this diverse group of children displays a range of emotions and states of being that might not have been as powerful if seen in and through a single protagonist. And, just as some of the (stylized) hearts hidden in the illustrations are less readily visible than others, some lines meanings are more opaque than others. Instead of coming across as inaccessible or bewildering, however, the spare text and pictures leave room for reader reflection on what it might mean for ones heart to be, for example, a puddlea stain[or] cloudy and heavy with rain. Culminating spreads move from starlit darkness to incandescent sunshine, concluding with a rousing, affirming declaration: My heart is a shadow, / a light, and a guide. / Closed or open/ I get to decide. megan dowd lambert March/April 2019 p 63(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
Lucid verse and transcendent monotype prints masterfully express how a heart can be "a windowa slideclosed / or opened up wide."Soothing, simple phrasing and masterful printmaking harness metaphors to make a heart's complexity accessible to children just recognizing its many manifestations. Recurring rhyme provides an ideal cadence for reading aloud and also a reassuring assertion: Feelings can change from one moment to the next, your heart might sometimes be "cloudy and heavy with rain," but just as the verse returns to rhyme, a heart can right itself. It "can grow," and it "can mend, / and a heart that is closed can still open again." Double-page spreads, inky with coal blacks and smudgy graphite grays, find luminosity and searing beauty through the introduction of a single color, an undauntedly optimistic ginkgo yellow that surges and glows. Pencil work adds specificity (freckles, eyeglasses, buttons, blades of grass) and sometimes emotional jaggedness (pelting rain, a steep, rickety slide). Young readers will see themselves in this impressive book's children, kids of all racial backgrounds, who hide behind closed curtains, trudge through rain, extend a bouquet of small heart-shaped flowers, stand under the protective boughs of a wondrous tree. The final pages acknowledge a heart's myriad, sometimes-incongruous roles ("a shadow, / a light, and a guide") and joyfully assert our own, ultimate self-governance: "Closed or open // I get to decide."Sensitive, stunning words and pictures speak directly to young hearts. (Picture book. 6-11) Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
