Before Morning

Starred review from August 15, 2016
In a book-length poem, Newbery Honor recipient Sidman (Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night) expresses a heartfelt wish for a blizzard so big that it brings everything to a halt; Caldecott Medalist Krommes (The House in the Night) imagines a child for whom a snow day matters more than most. The child’s mother is an airline pilot, and the first spreads show the girl and her father preparing to say good-bye to her. In this context, Sidman’s words (“Let the sky fill with flurry and flight”) take on a different meaning; the child clearly hopes that, just this once, her mother might stay. As the snow starts (“Let the air turn to feathers”), the mother sets off for the airport, but when she realizes no flights are leaving (“Let urgent plans founder” accompanies huddling groups of stranded airport travelers), she turns back. Krommes’s sturdy, rounded figures and quiltlike compositions convey the family’s joy as the mother returns. The story’s parallel but separate threads—the innocent images of the poem, the cheery reassurance of the illustrations, and the tension of the family’s wait—give this collaboration significant emotional depth. Ages 4–7.

A child yearns for the snow day that will keep her mother, an airplane pilot, home.Krommes' inimitable scratchboard illustrations play with perspective and point of view as they flesh out Sidman's short poem, written in the form of an invocation. Washed with orange, tan, and icy blue, they open and close with landscapes reminiscent of Virginia Lee Burton's work. Moving in on the scene, readers see street traffic and park pigeons. Fallen leaves indicate the season. Mother, child, and dog leave the park, passing a bakery. Three wordless spreads set up the story; on the fourth, the poem begins. It's set with just a few words on the double-page images; some spreads need no words. The pacing is perfect. Careful readers will relish the details and concoct back stories of their own. Overnight, the pilot tiptoes away, just as snowflakes begin to fall. Gradually, park, roads, and cars are covered with snow. Finally she gets to the airport. No planes will fly. Instead, mother returns to a snow-covered world, where all three can breakfast together, toboggan in the park, and celebrate with hot chocolate and cupcakes. A snow day dream! The straight-haired mother and child are nearly genderless, and they are washed with the same peach color as the leaves. On the final endpapers, elaborate blue-tinged crystals float over the quiet snow-covered town. Like a snow day, a special treat with broad appeal. (Picture book. 4-8) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from October 1, 2016

K-Gr 2-At dusk, a woman, child, and dog hurry out of the park and pass by a bakery, though the wool-capped girl clearly wants to stop. They enter their apartment, where Dad has dinner ready, and everyone looks happy except the girl, who's staring dolefully at a cap that sits atop a small suitcase. In the next illustration, as the windows reflect the night, a book about Amelia Earhart lies open on the couch as the mother, in her airline pilot's uniform, seems to coax her child into returning the cap she's hiding behind her back. Turn the page, and beyond the entry hall filled with winter clothes, skates, and sled, the mother is folding and packing clothes into her overnight bag. Only then do the words begin: "In the deep woolen dark, /as we slumber unknowing, /let the sky fill with flurry and flight." This haunting invocation summons geese, snowflakes, and a heavy whiteness that refracts the golden city lights. Krommes shows viewers the city from the rooftops, from the back of goose wings, and from the statues in the park. When the poem says, "Let urgent plans founder," we see the airport waiting room, where the mother gazes out at snowplows under the planes as a sign announces flight cancellations. Any child might be wishing for snow to "change the world before morning," to "make it slow and delightful and white," but here, as a stunning series of scratchboard (similar to woodcut) and watercolor pictures reveal, the petitioner is a girl who longs to have both her parents home with her to sled down a steep white slope and to visit that bakery at last. VERDICT This simply perfect book is a must-have piece of portable poetry and art for all collections.-Susan Weitz, formerly at Spencer-Van Etten School District, Spencer, NY

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from September 1, 2016
Preschool-G *Starred Review* The team that produced Swirl by Swirl (2011) offers another story both intimate and glorious. A young girl hides her mother's pilot cap, knowing that it will soon be time for Mom to fly away again. Indeed, as the child sleeps, the mother heads to the airport. But what's this? Around the brownstone's windows, snowflakes are drifting. Soon the sky is white, and by the time Mom reaches the airport, enough snow has fallen to cancel the flight. She flags down a tow truck that drops her at home, resulting in unexpected time with family to make it slow with sleds and hot chocolate. It is rare in picture books to find words and art so perfectly matched, though perhaps not surprising given the talents of Caldecott winner Krommes (The House in the Night, 2008) and Newbery Honor Book author Sidman (Dark Emperor and Other Poems of the Night, 2010). Each phrase in Sidman's spare text evokes the heart and the senses (let the earth turn to sugar ), while Krommes' scratchboard art is so intricately rendered, so full of story, that each page could be investigated dozens of times. At book's end, Sidman explains the text as an invocation, inviting readers to throw their own words and wishes into the air. Who could resist?(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)