Review by Booklist Review
Masterfully employing brush and ink, with a striking color palette limited to yellow, black, white, and gray, Henkes creates a simple but thought-provoking story. Using panel illustrations, the book is divided into chapters, setting the pace of the narrative and helping the reader understand comparisons between items. The first chapter consists of two panels, both showing the sun, "as bright as a flower." Chapter two introduces the flower--composed of the same core shape and colors as the sun--while the text makes the first mention of the lion. Chapter three brings it all together, as a lion--whose head also bears the same design as the sun and flower--sniffs the flower and warms himself in the sunlight. In chapter four, the panels now have scalloped edges because the lion is dreaming, the curves again echoing the design of the lion's mane, the flower's petals, and the sun's rays. Chapter five begins the ending progression, and by chapter six, the lion is home with his family. He runs, eats, and goes to sleep surrounded by safety and love, which results in an image of pure happiness. A perfect book for storytime reading or family bedtime sharing, this is completely accessible for the youngest readers, while providing an intriguing visual and print literacy experience for older ones.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Simple words and repeating forms draw beginning readers into this iterative volume by Henkes (Summer Song). Its central visual element, a circle with a ruffled edge, could signify the sun, a flower, or a lion with a mane--and here, it's all three. Divided into six short chapters, the story's sentences relate the three objects to each other. First, readers meet the sun: "The sun is in the sky./ It is shining./ It is as bright as a flower." In chapter two, a ruffled circle appears with a stem and leaves; it's a bloom that "looks like a little lion." In chapter three, the motif forms the head of a stumpy feline ("He smells the flower./ He warms himself in the sun") who dreams, wakes, and runs home. Readers see the hill, but not the traveling lion ("Can you see him?/ No, you can't./ He is running too fast"). Yellow spreads convey warmth and light, while gray, hand-inked blades of grass cover the hill. Signlike artwork and straightforward text fit together as neatly as building blocks in this lighthearted reading exercise. Ages 4--8. (Sept.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Meet the sun, "as bright as a flower"; a flower that looks like a lion; and a lion, who sees the flower and dreams about a field of them. But these dream-flowers are delicious cookies, and the lion eats them all. Waking up hungry, he runs home to have supper and sleep snugly with his family. Divided into six brief chapters that follow the lion from hilltop to home, this is a perfectly paced picture book for preschoolers that will also be ideal for emerging readers. With simple shapes (the rounded shapes for the sun, the flower, and the lion are the same but with facial features on the lion) and uncluttered, sunny-yellow illustrations that mirror the text, the book includes a mixture of short declarative and interrogative sentences, the latter directed at the audience. In a couple of instances, Henkes even answers his own questions, one with gentle humor: "The lion runs home. Can you see him? No, you can't. He is running too fast." The large, clean, black type is easy to read, always centered in white space. Sentences are full of repetition and rhythm: the flower "is growing on the hill...The lion is running up the hill." It's an endearing, seemingly simple story with a wide-eyed and memorable protagonist, whose adventures will delight preschoolers and support and encourage those taking first steps toward reading. Julie Danielson September/October 2020 p.63(c) Copyright 2020. 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
A sun, a flower, and a lion. They look similar, no? Introduced in a wordless panel before the title page, the three figures bear at least two shapes in common. They're also the same combination of warm yellow and (somehow just as warm) white, outlined in thick black line that pops against the muted yellow background. The text, divided into six short chapters, goes on to introduce the figures in isolation: "This is the sun. / Can you see it?" the narrator asks before going on to proclaim that the sun "is as bright as a flower." When the flower is introduced, it's compared to a lion. The lion? He isn't compared to anything but instead smells the flower and warms himself in the sun. In the next chapter, the lion dreams that the flowers are sun-sized cookies. He wakes up hungry and runs home as fast as he can. Can readers spot him on the page? Using a vocabulary of fewer than 60 words and their variants--and a visual vocabulary of even fewer shapes and colors--Henkes creates an impeccably designed story that's rewarding for toddlers and early readers alike. The repetitive structure and tone call to mind the playful simplicity of Mem Fox and Judy Horacek's Where Is the Green Sheep? (2004). With imagination at its center, this participatory read-aloud also cleverly introduces the concept of simile ("It looks like a lion") and metaphor ("The flowers are cookies"). As brilliant as can be. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
