My Shadow

October 31, 1990
Rand leads the reader through a joyful parade of children from all over the world in his rendition of the poem about a child playing with his shadow. A Chinese youngster plays kickball in front of a stone lion, a boy balances on the edge of a fountain in Italy, an African tyke stares at a puddle of shadow beneath his feet. Unfortunately, the Stevenson text, with its single narrator, is not well synchronized with the subjects of Rand's illustrations, who vary from page to page. For example, a girl in a garden is pictured saying, ``One morning . . . I rose and found the shining dew on every buttercup.'' The sentence is completed by a group of children playing on an island beach who say, ``But my lazy little shadow . . . stayed at home behind me and was fast asleep in bed.'' Although Rand's often idyllic locales are gorgeously depicted, his settings may not always be clear to readers, adding further confusion to the artistic device. Ages 4-8.

May 1, 2016

K-Gr 2-Stevenson's classic verse is brought to life when a blond, round-faced boy with squiggly red spirals on his cheeks cheerfully extols the virtues of his shadow. Sanchez focuses on the active parts of the poem, first with the opening pages of the boy and his shadow in various poses (easy for young storytime participants to emulate), then with scenes catching the boy in mid-motion: through a door with one foot past the entryway, jumping into bed, ascending steps, etc. Action words are also cleverly bolded, as when the letters of the word taller are underlined by the spread of a shadow over a green field as the boy "shoots up taller like a bouncy rubber ball." The soft palette of the illustrations allows the 19th-century poetic language to carry over naturally and without anachronisms. VERDICT This accessible and appealing take on a childhood favorite should be appreciated by a broad audience in schools and public libraries.-Joanna K. Fabicon, Los Angeles Public Library

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