This Beautiful Day

Starred review from June 12, 2017
Inside on a dreary, rainy day, a boy hears a strain of music from the radio. The weather outside is reflected in the artwork’s drab duotone: blue and black on white. Playfully, the boy starts to dance, and splashes of bright blue appear. Two girls, possibly his sisters, join him: the older one struts while the younger one twirls with a stuffed rabbit. They venture into the rain with their umbrellas (“This beautiful day... has all of us skipping and singing and calling aloud”). Lee (Ask Me), whose singing line adds delight to every page, draws them stomping joyously in puddles. Alert viewers will notice additional color creeping into the spreads. Sure enough, the rain stops and color bursts forth as the children, a larger group now, toss their umbrellas, then race through grassy expanses and climb trees. Sprightly wordplay (“high-fiving and yes, we’re-alive-ing”) and a dash of sound humor—“doodly (slurp), doodly (burp),” during a Popsicle break—make Jackson’s high-spirited hymn to childhood an heir to earlier classics by Margaret Wise Brown and Ruth Krause. No grand adventures or special effects are needed: the story’s fun flows from the simplest things. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from June 1, 2017
With colors and compositions conceived to celebrate the allure of water, the book jacket and opening scenes immediately recall Lee's The Wave (2008).Three bored children, stuck inside while it pours, are rendered in pencil, with paper-white skin. When the boy turns on the radio, blue swirls of music animate the space; even the stuffed rabbit's ears perk up. As dance connects music and water, the children skip out into the puddles. Jackson's words wisely allow room for Lee's imagination. He makes no reference to rain; that interpretation of a "beautiful day" is the illustrator's. The story is propelled by the author's spirited verses, featuring internal and end-of-line rhymes that scan with only an occasional bump: "This beautiful day... / so great for parading, // for cartwheeling fun / or hiding / and seeking // or gliding / and sliding / in this marigold sun." Listeners will track the momentum of these kinetic kids as they swing from trees with friends, parachuting back to earth with umbrellas a la Mary Poppins. Digitally manipulated acrylics in summery shades fill the pages as the day brightens, offering another take on the title. Popsicles, paired with an e.e. cummings-esque arrangement of "doodly-doo"s and parenthetical bodily sounds, relax this jazzy, pizzazz-y romp--until the wind whips up. A delightful depiction of the ability of children to find joy regardless of atmospheric conditions. (Picture book. 3-6)

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June 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 1-A dark and stormy morning cannot dampen the spirits of three siblings in this ode to summer weather. The day begins with a song, a dance, and a skip as the kids splash through puddles and march through the neighborhood with friends. As the sky clears, the children delight in doing what children do: playing outdoors, expending energy, and reveling in the opportunity to freely enjoy the pleasures of the day. "This beautiful day.../so great for parading, /for cartwheeling fun/or hiding/and seeking/or gliding/and sliding/in this marigold sun." Jackson's spare poetic text expresses the many ways that spirited children play, while Lee's marvelous pencil and acrylic illustrations adroitly create a sense of space, air, energy, and joy as the day progresses from gray to glorious. These children feel real, drawn with loose, sketchy lines that deftly depict movement and exuberance, with expressions to match. Finally, it's time to sit down on a camp chair with a Popsicle. Who could ask for a more beautiful day? VERDICT An absolutely perfect book for summer read-alouds and interactive sharing.-Teri Markson, Los Angeles Public Library

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2017
Preschool-G A day can be beautiful, no matter what the weather. Stormy skies might keep three kids inside for a while, but eventually play and imagination overrides any hesitancy to go out. Besides, what could be more fun than singing and jumping in puddles? The soggy fun attracts more kids from the neighborhood and, as the skies clear, umbrellas become opportunities for a new kind of fun in the trees and skies. As the sun dries the puddles and warms the air, Popsicles enjoyed with family puts a delicious end to a most beautiful afternoon. The joy found in simple pleasures is captured perfectly through the spare but joyous text and elegant pencil-and-acrylic drawings. Rendered in high-contrast black and white at the beginning, they slowly incorporate more color as the day progresses, eventually bursting with the greens and blues of a hot summer day. Unfussy, evocative, and full of enthusiasm, this picture book will remind readers of all ages of the immense satisfaction that can be experienced through the simplest pleasures of daily life.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)