See You Someday Soon
by Pat Zietlow Miller; illus. by Suzy Lee
Preschool, Primary    Roaring Brook    48 pp.    g
6/22    978-1-250-22110-0    $19.99

“Someday soon, I’ll see you. Even though you are there. And I am here. So very far apart. I want to see you now, of course. Right this minute.” In a childlike first-person text, a young person describes to a loved one the feeling of missing her and yearning for a reunion, touching on imaginative ways of doing so (rocket ships, jetpacks) along with real-life solutions (sending letters back and forth, video chatting). Lee’s warmhearted illustrations—coupled with the book’s ingenious design—provide terrific enhancement to the story line. Frequent die-cuts (“used to show how the ­characters could be physically closer together through the pages”); variations in background colors; ­different-size pages; and changes in font, style, size, and text placement help pace the events and offer literal windows into the characters’ feelings of impatience, frustration, longing, and love. One particularly timely—and humorous—image shows the characters not-quite-centered on their respective computer screens. The end of the book brings unadulterated joy in the form of a tightly held, sunshine-y embrace. While this reassuring picture book is particularly apt for the COVID-19 era, it will be welcomed by anyone suffering separation and seeking comfort.

From the July/August 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.