They Say Blue

Starred review from January 1, 2018
A girl weighs what she’s been told about the world against what she observes and knows, leading to more questions and contemplations. Working in lush, watery acrylics, Tamaki (This One Summer) initially paints the girl on a windy beach. She admits that the sky and sea look blue at the moment: “But when I hold the water in my hands, it’s as clear as glass.” Just because something is visible doesn’t mean it’s true, the girl recognizes, and there’s truth in the invisible, too (“I don’t need to crack an egg to know it holds an orange yolk inside”). Color and nature—red blood, golden fields, a purple flower—serve as a through line in a story that takes a surreal leap when the girl throws off her winter layers, stretches, and grows into a tree, continuing her observations as the seasons pass. In a quiet conclusion, the girl (human once again) and her mother watch crows soar against a dawn sky that’s far from blue. Thinking, imagining, noticing—these, Tamaki suggests, are the tools we have to understand our world. Ages 5–7. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

Starred review from February 1, 2018

PreS-Gr 1-Tamaki's picture book debut explores color and the seasons in a lyrical, philosophical way that is rooted in a child's sensibilities. A young girl contemplates things most assume as hard truths. "They say blue is the color of the sky....Which is true today! They say the sea is blue, too." But then she points out that it looks blue, but when she holds it in her hands "it's clear as glass." Then she wonders is a blue whale blue? She hasn't seen one. In a nonlinear, vignette fashion, seasons change as do feelings of frustration to wonder, capturing a child's imagination, mindfulness, and inquiry. Each unexpected turn from thought to thought will allow opportunities for rich discussion when using the book with children. Large swathes of acrylic paint on top of inked illustrations bring energy, color, and light to each sensitively rendered moment. Tamaki uses a motif of the young girl with her arms raised throughout, radiant with joy whether she is playing in the ocean, shedding winter clothes, or imagining that she is the tree she watches outside her bedroom window. The book ends with an intimate moment of her mother waking her in the morning, and as her mother braids her hair, they watch crows and wonder together what they are thinking. VERDICT Attuned to a child's psychology and patterns of critical thinking, this visually stunning work is a must-purchase for libraries.-Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 1, 2018
Readers experience the colors and sensations of the world through the varying moods and observations of one little girl.A golden-skinned child with straight black hair frolics in the water, noticing that the sea looks blue from a distance. "But when I hold the water in my hands, it's as clear as glass." She ponders hidden colors, from the orange of the yolk nestled inside an egg to the red blood that is always pumping through her body, whether she is calm and quiet or running across a playground filled with ethnically diverse children in school uniforms. Her mood soars as she imagines riding a boat over waving yellow grass but comes thudding down to earth as she disembarks from her school bus beside said grassy field, stepping into the cold grayness of a rainy day. The exuberant joys of spring and summer, the return of autumn, and the natural slowing down of winter's return mark the passage of time. The poetic language pairs well with the acrylic-and-Photoshop paintings. Most of the artwork conveys movement and feeling rather than being meticulously literal--such as when the girl muses about the color of blue whales and impressionistic dabs of darker blue form the flukes of a whale beneath her--with the startling exception of the detailed, highly realistic spread of crows taking flight.Neither exactly a book about colors nor exactly a book about seasons, this is a reminder to slow down, savor the present, notice small details, and relish childlike wonder. (Picture book. 4-8)

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Starred review from February 15, 2018
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* There's something ineffable about Caldecott Honor Book illustrator Tamaki's debut picture book, but that might be precisely the point. In swirly washes of aqueous color, laid down in thick, textural brushstrokes, and evocative figures sketched in fine lines of black ink, a young girl contemplates the world around her, with special attention to color, mood, and mutability. She notices the color of the sky and the ocean, and how they're different from water in her hand. She notes how she knows some colorsegg yolks, bloodwithout having to see them. Tamaki sends her young protagonist on a happy flight of fancy while she observes a field of yellow grass, but that imaginative journey is quashed by the gray, rainy sky matching her grumpy mood. There's not a structured narrative or lesson per se, but Tamaki nevertheless latches onto something particularly childlike in her depiction of the constant motion of seasons, feelings, what words mean, and the world at large. The free-associative nature of the child narrator's interaction with her surroundings seems utterly familiar, and approaching it with observational, sensory language lands it firmly in territory children can relate to. This poetic, off-kilter little book has enigmatic power, and observant children will likely be enchanted.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)