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PRESCHOOL
Holt, K. A.

I Wonder

40 pp. | Random | October, 2019 | Trade ISBN 978-1-5247-1422-2 $17.99 | Library ISBN 978-1-5247-1423-9 $20.99 | Ebook ISBN 978-1-5247-1424-6
(2) PS Illustrated by Kenard Pak. In a book intended to get the wheels of one's mind turning, Holt presents a series of questions children might pose. These vary in tone: playful (thoughts about belly buttons and breakfast cereal); scientific (questions about insects and galaxies); empathetic (does your teddy bear have feelings?); and metaphysical (could the ocean be merely a giant water bottle?). There are also absorbing linguistic queries, including one that plays with homophones: "Do tires get tired?" Many of the questions will generate laughs--for one, the notion that a sandwich gets mad when you bite it--and all of them would make effective writing prompts in elementary classrooms. Pak plays with perspective in his velvety, soft-focus illustrations; we get both indoor and outdoor aerial views, as well as views from the ground when, say, the text wonders if grasshoppers need hopping lessons. All the images are full-bleed; no borders can contain all the astonishment in a book that is an imaginative exploration of the word wonder. "I wonder why I wonder so much," a child asks toward the book's close, answered by "because you are wonderful." A tribute to the inquisitiveness of children, one that understands that the questions alone can be thrilling.
Reviewer: Julie Danielson | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2020

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