THANK YOU, WORLD

On the title page of this marvelously conceived volume, Halperin suggests the pattern to follow, using different patterns or designs to reflect the eight featured countries: the United States, Mexico, Bolivia, France, Mali, Saudi Arabia, India and China. On the endpapers she puts eight globes, each with one country highlighted on its surface. On each spread, she offers eight boxed images reflecting for those locales the line of poetry given. The verse itself follows morning to bedtime simply and somewhat clumsily: “Thank you, sun, for waking up the morning and coloring the sky. / Thank you, sky, for shining blue that calls me to touch you, swinging high.” Each line carries a noun from the previous line: The swing connects to grass, grass to breeze, breeze to trees, etc. What captures the heart and the attention are Halperin’s wonderful pictures, made with crayons over pencil drawings in her signature luminous style. So children are flying kites from a Paris park to an Indian market and their windows at twilight look out from a Mali thatched dwelling to a Mexican stucco home. The dedication suggests how to say thank you in each language. (Picture book. 4-8)