  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 01/01/2020 PreS-Gr 1—"Yellow the flower./Yellow the seed./Yellow and black the buzzing bee." Starting in the spring, this gentle verse story follows a small boy, his family, and their friends over the course of one year. Each season brings its own cozy delights, lushly depicted in Sala's colorful spreads. Whether it's the child playing in puddles and enjoying spring flowers, exploring the beach and picnicking with family and friends in the summer, savoring autumnal repasts, or caroling in the winter, each scene brims with love, warmth, and rural tranquility. Sharp-eyed readers will enjoy finding elements repeated throughout—a striped lighthouse in the background, the family's horse and dog, different views of the boy's house, the mother's growing belly, and the appearance of a new baby in early spring. Both the mixed media illustrations and White's pithy verses highlight the special colors of each season, with a soothing refrain of "[color] on green"—yellow in spring, blue in summer, brown in autumn, finally white in winter. VERDICT A quietly comforting celebration of family and nature that can enrich most collections.—Yelena Voysey, formerly at Pickering Educational Library, Boston University - Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 01/01/2020 *Starred Review* Endpaper illustrations of the same tree during spring and summer (in the front) then fall and winter (in the back) foreshadow the chronology of this story, but this radiant combination of poetic text and warm, inviting watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil illustrations is much more than a simple depiction of changing seasons. The text—comprised of hypnotic, rhyme-laden tercets—considers how colors blend and layer in nature, while the pictures tell the story of a boy living with his parents in a small, white house surrounded by fields and near to the water. All of the family members have dark skin and hair with blue eyes. A flowing perspective in the full-bleed paintings invites the reader to enter and feel like part of the story as, in spring, plants grow past the edges, while summer brings sand, water, and picnics in the fields. Moving into fall, apples and pumpkins appear, then lots of snow, always with the family positioned just inside the frame of nature. Idyllic scenes of playing at the beach, gathering with friends (of various skin and hair colors), and singing around a Christmas tree present a calm respite from everyday busyness. As the seasons progress, another transition occurs, with a new baby joining the family when spring comes again. - Copyright 2020 Booklist. Loading...
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