You Are Light by Aaron Becker

You Are Light

Aaron Becker, Author and Illustrator

Candlewick Studio, Fiction, Mar. 26, 2019

Suitable for Ages: 4-8

Themes: Light, Color, Imagination, Board Book

Opening: This is the light that brings the dawn / to warm the sky and hug the land.

Publisher’s Synopsis:

With a wondrously simple die-cut book, the Caldecott Honor–winning creator of the Journey trilogy brings his talents further into the light.

This is the light that brings the day.

Open this beautiful book to find a graphic yellow sun surrounded by a halo of bright die-cut circles. Now hold the page up to the light and enjoy the transformation as the colors in those circles glow. In an elegant, sparely narrated ode to the phenomenon of light, Aaron Becker follows as light reflects off the earth to warm our faces, draws up the sea to make the rain, feeds all the things that grow, and helps to create all the brilliant wonders of the world, including ourselves.

Why I love this book:

Aaron Becker’s board book is a celebration of light. It is magical and creates a sense of wonder for young children, who will want to hold the book up to the light and read the story repeatedly. Becker stimulates children’s senses and imaginations with his flowing verse that allows for open discussion on each carefully crafted page. It is beautifully designed. The spare and beautiful text ends with, “This is the light that dwells inside all the brilliant wonders of the world, including YOU!”

Resources: Children can create some of their own light pages by cutting a shape and placing a piece of  colorful cellophane behind it. Cut out shapes of stars, butterflies, animals, flowers and attach them to a window pane. Hang prisms in near a sunny window, so children can see the light reflected on their walls.

Aaron Becker is the Caldecott Honor–winning author-illustrator of the Journey trilogy and of A Stone for Sascha. He lives in western Massachusetts with his family.

Every Friday, authors and KidLit bloggers post a favorite picture book. To see a complete listing of all the Perfect Picture Books (PPB) with resources, please visit author Susanna Leonard Hill’s website. 

*Reviewed from a copy provided by the publisher.

** I am in the processing of moving this month, so I won’t be releasing many reviews. I should be back on line in June. Thank you for following my reviews.