At the Window
by Hope Lim; illus. by Qin Leng
Primary    Candlewick    40 pp.
5/25    9781536224788    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781536244724    $18.99

On daily walks with their puppy, the unnamed narrator of this contemplative book notices a woman sitting behind the first-floor window of a house without curtains. “Our windows are covered with curtains all the time,” the child muses. One day the woman and child make eye contact and then become regular fixtures in each other’s days, waving and exchanging pleasantries. The child learns that the woman is a writer. Compositions in soft watercolors and lively ink lines begin with a tight focus on the child, the woman, and their homes, but as the narrator’s perspective expands, readers begin to see more of this older, comfortable city neighborhood. The woman isn’t at her window one day, and her house goes up for sale, giving the child an opportunity, albeit bittersweet, to visit during an open house and see the world from the writer’s perspective. This inspires the child to open the windows at home: “With the curtains open, now I see what I’ve been missing.” While the illustrations show the child making friends with a kid who lives across the street, the text tells us that the child has taken to writing in front of their now-open window, bringing the story full circle.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.