A New Green Day

"Very young children will love reading along with adults, who can help them make sense of the sometimes-abstract hints; older kids will have fun making guesses on their own. . . . Simple, poetic, and fun."

"Portis' engaging offering is a lyrical guessing-game tribute to summer and a few of its unique features."

Giving voice to wonders great and small, Portis (Hey, Water!) crafts short poems about natural things and events encountered over the course of a summer day: a tadpole, thunder, an inchworm, mud. Each voice poses a provocative, lyrical riddle answered through the turn of a page: "Morning lays me on your pillow, / an invitation, square and warm./ Come out and play!" An envelope? No. The page turn reveals a patch of sunlight, dense with shadows of leaves and branches, falling across a sleeping child's dark braid. Textures abound: "I'm a candy sucked smooth/ in the river's mouth./ Let me sweeten your pocket" reveals a piebald pebble. A veined leaf duplicates a tree's silhouette, fuzzy tendrils trail from a passing cloud, and starry night falls, "a black coat/ slipped around/ Earth's shoulders." The power of Portis's poems, and the surprise each page turn allows, lets readers experience familiar moments with awakened senses, offering them nothing less than a new world filled with fresh experiences. Ages 3-7. Agent: Deborah Warren, East/West Literary. (Apr.)

Copyright 2020 Publishers Weekly, LLC Used with permission.

"A playful, thoroughly captivating guessing game for young listeners."

 "ever-so-satisfying . . . In its reverence for each finely described detail, A New Green Day holds a magnifying glass to the wonders, big and small, that are waiting in nature for all to enjoy."—Shelf Awareness, Starred Review

"Mixed-media art involving brush and ink, hand-stamping, and charcoal has digital smoothness, balance, and an elemental feel as each small page focuses tightly on its subject . . . a graceful lyrical readaloud." —The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books