Shelf Awareness--Also

PB Review: Also

Also by E.B. Goodale (Clarion Books, 32p., ages 3-7, 9780358153948)

E.B. Goodale's Also is a gentle meditation on time and memory that deftly describes a series of small but meaningful moments in the lives of three generations of a family.

A girl sits "high on the hill, amongst the blueberry bushes" near Gramma's house. "And also..." she's remembering the "rustling in the trees" she heard when camping in the woods with Mama. Her gramma looks out the kitchen window, simultaneously remembering being "surprised by a bunny in a bush" in her mother's garden. The girl's mama walks down the hill to find her, remembering that time when she sorted blueberries with her sister, tucked in a nook of her mama's kitchen. Finally, when "many years have passed," the narrator sits at her desk writing this story. "And also..." she is "a little girl at [her] gramma's house, high on the hill, amongst the blueberry bushes."

Goodale (Windows) fashions a contemplative text that ably conveys the dreamlike quality of remembrance. The language is lyrical, but there is a delightful playfulness in the tone as well. Her fine monoprint, gouache and blueberry ink illustrations make great use of color to differentiate clearly the present and the past, thought and memory. A bright red bird appears in each spread and provides a solid touchpoint throughout her circular and ever-shifting timeline. The whole of this picture book is a wonderful sum of its delicate parts but, most importantly, Also lovingly demonstrates for readers that "we are all here... and also there./ Always." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.

Discover: The narrator of this gentle picture-book meditation on time and memory describes the magic of a series of moments in the lives of three generations of her family.