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PICTURE BOOKS
Valério, Geraldo

At the Pond

48 pp. | Groundwood | March, 2020 | Trade ISBN 978-1-77306-232-7 $19.95 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-77306-233-4
(2) K-3 In this wordless story of a boy and his dog, Valério (Blue Rider, rev. 7/18) uses a fantastical nature walk to explore the old adage "if you love someone, let them go." Leaving their small cottage, the boy and his pet set off through a monochromatic, graphite pencil–rendered forest. The enigmatic hint of cobalt blue that appears on their foreheads seeps down into the world at the page-turn, becoming a large pond filled with floating swans. Leaving the gray shoreline behind, boy and dog sail atop a swan into a landscape bursting with bright color. Flamingos, deer, rabbits, and foxes scamper among the sun-soaked flowers on the banks of the pond in an idyllic scene. After a canary-yellow butterfly catches the attention of the dog, the boy unfastens his pet's leash and collar and transfers them to the swan's neck. Immediately, the brightly colored illustrations (created with colored pencils, markers, and paint) revert to grays and blacks, and the once-tranquil pond is now tumultuous as the swan strains under its new confinement. Recognizing the swan's sorrow and his own mistake, the boy takes off the leash and drops it in the water. The pond world is once more inundated with dazzling color, signaling new understandings, tender forgiveness, and the joy that accompanies freedom.
Reviewer: Emmie Stuart | Horn Book Magazine Issue: May, 2020

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