Island Storm
by Brian Floca; illus. by Sydney Smith
Preschool, Primary    Porter/Holiday    48 pp.
7/25    9780823456475    $18.99

Caldecott winner Floca and Hans Christian Andersen Award winner Smith team up to create a magnificent, timeless tale of two young children on an adventure close to home. An intense storm is approaching. “Now take my hand / and we’ll go see / the sea before the storm,” begins Floca’s rhythmic and expressive text. The children bundle up and head to the cove, where they witness the waves smashing and exploding on the shore and ask themselves, “Is this enough, or do we try for more?” The intrepid explorers continue, in what becomes the text’s refrain: “You pull on me, I pull on you, and we decide to go on.” They walk through town, “eerie and empty.” A “BOOM” and pelting rain send them running through cold, dark woods for home. “Home! / Home to relief, and to love.” The storm passes during the night, and the next day dawns. “Now the day is bright and blue, / and the view across the water is long. / And you and I go on.” Floca’s writing is pure poetry; Smith’s expressionistic watercolor and gouache illustrations are utterly gorgeous; and themes of adventure and home, sibling closeness, and the majesty of nature are expertly conveyed. Picture-book making at its best.

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