Look and Be Grateful
by Tomie dePaola; illus. by the author
Preschool   Holiday   32 pp.
10/15   978-0-8234-3443-5   $16.95   g
e-book ed. 978-0-8234-3485-5   $16.95

With all the picture books designed for just-before-sleep (see Thank You and Good Night and Beep! Beep! Go to Sleep! in this issue), why not one to bring you awake? DePaola’s rouse from sleep is a gentle one, asking readers to “open your eyes, and look.” The text remains quiet, moving from its opening imploration to a suggested response: “Be grateful, for everything you see.” The brief handwritten text on peachy-beige paper is accompanied by the simplest of images: a child, a flower or two, one of the artist’s signature doves. A closing picture shows two children kneeling, nondenominationally, in prayer. While puzzling out an abstraction like “for today is today” might not be the easiest of peep-of-day tasks, just trust kids to roll with it as they go about their business.

From the September/October 2015 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.