PB Review: Angela's Glacier
Angela's Glacier by Jordan Scott, illus. by Diana Sudyka (Neal Porter Books, 32p., ages 4-8, 9780823450824, January 2, 2024)
Angela's Glacier is an evocative, expressive tale of how the bond between a child and her father--and their shared love for the "ancient blue" of a frigid landscape--leads the girl to find her own heartbeat in the gentle, familiar sound of "a glacier's music."
Angela's glacier, "covered in clouds" before she is born, suddenly "bloom[s] under the milky Arctic sunlight" when Angela makes her appearance. Her father wraps her in a blanket so they can go outside and listen to the "whispers of ancient ice fill[ing] Angela's birthday morning." Before she can walk there herself, her father carries her "to the glacier's ice-blue heart," where Angela listens contentedly to a "universe of sound." Angela's father teaches her the glacier's name, Snæfellsjökull, as they go. As Angela grows, she begins visiting on her own. Step by step, "SNÆ (left foot) FELLS (right foot) JÖ (left foot) KULL (right foot)," Angela hikes to the glacier "to feel and listen."
Eventually, Angela "walk[s] away from her glacier." She becomes busy with "school, friends, violin, soccer, bike rides, homework," and no longer shares her secrets with Snæfellsjökull. That's when she realizes her heart "sound[s] strange." Her father advises her to visit Snæfellsjökull, so she does. Only then, once again, is she able to find the true rhythm of her heart, as it beats over and over: SNÆ FELLS JÖ KULL.
As he did with the text of the magnificent I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott makes use of elements of the natural world to explore the art of staying grounded. In Angela's Glacier, Scott fashions a story about a girl and the glacier she adores that's surprisingly accessible. Rhythmic, melodious language conjures a kinship for the harsh and beautiful landscape, which includes the "coldest of cold" heart of the book: Snæfellsjökull. Diana Sudyka's (Little Land) dazzling gouache and digital illustrations effortlessly imbue sky, land, water, humans, and animals alike with vitality and elan, her lushly colored world singing with the glacier's sound. This inspiring picture book celebrates the wonder of "staying still" and listening to "ourselves [and] to each other," as well as "to the ecosystems and their inhabitants who sustain us." An endnote points to the fragility of nature, and the tragedy that Snæfellsjökull itself is projected to be extinct in 15 to 20 years due to global warming. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author.
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