Julia Denos’s prose, spare, evocative and spiced with an occasional, subtle rhyme, is very much in sync with the illustrator E. B. Goodale’s mixed-media art…The highlight of the boy’s sojourn is the end, when he returns home to see his mother in the window, waiting for him. It’s a reassuring moment in these times, when walking at night in a hoodie can have different, even troubling associations for a child of color.
—The New York Times Book Review
It’s a genial take on city life, which makes the neighborhood seem just as comforting as home, though the child’s home—just as luminescent as the windows he or she passes—is surely the most comforting of all. Ideal bedtime reading and a gorgeously understated celebration of everyday enchantment.
—Booklist (starred review)
Readers will want to revisit these pages of impressionistic trees, buildings that blur as they recede into the vanishing point, and captivating combinations of fully realized scenes with transparent objects outlined in delicate lines. The narrative ends with a quickening step toward the loved one waving behind the curtain—and a story shared in a snuggle. This evocative portrait elevates an everyday routine to a wonder-filled walk of discovery. Perfect for one-on-one and small group sharing.
—School Library Journal (starred review)
Debut illustrator Goodale's delicately detailed ink, watercolor, letterpress, and digital collage illustrations display palettes of the evening and night skies with beautifully nuanced shades of yellow, gold, and blue. The red-hooded child of color with dog can't help but recall Peter and Willie, and this book is a lovely, affirming follow-up. A warmhearted tale of a child, a dog, and their peaceful, friendly, and inviting neighborhood.
—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
Windows offers a…reframing of the everyday as something special, and beautiful, and worthy of attention; it makes everyday lives into a cozy art that we can all view and all make.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books (starred review)
Several recent picture books feature nighttime urban walks (The Way Home in the Night, rev. 7/17; City Moon, reviewed in this issue); this one stands out for its child protagonist’s independence, its matter-of-fact portrayal of a diverse city neighbor- hood, the emotion conveyed by the language, and the stunningly atmospheric art.
—The Horn Book (starred review)
Julia Denos's (Swatch) second-person text invites the reader to be an active participant in this pleasing book...E.B. Goodale brings her very own Somerville to brilliant life in her first picture book, using ink, watercolor, letterpress and digital collage. Each page is awash with the colors of dusk as the sun slowly sets until, finally, "you arrive home again, and you look at your window from the outside. Someone you love is waving at you, and you can't wait to go in."
—Shelf Awareness for Readers
It is an homage to late-autumn evenings, to excursions and to homecomings. It teaches young readers how to slow down and pay attention, to linger on an image and study its nooks and crannies.
—Minnesota Parent
This picture book is its own kind of window, the turning of its pages its own kind of stroll through the evening. And back again, to where we belong, to home.
—New York Journal of Books
A boy walking his dog at twilight watches as windows blink to life, like ‘a neighborhood of paper lanterns,” revealing the early-evening comforts of coming home. Luminous.
—People
Mixed-media art is at once detailed and atmospheric, the sky darkening from orangy glow to black over the course of 32 pages that trace a nightly ritual from inside and out.
—San Francisco Chronicle
★ 08/01/2017
PreS-Gr 1—In this story, a boy of color dons a red hoodie, leashes his eager dog, and ventures out into the twilight, where the windows are "blinking awake as the lights turn on inside: a neighborhood of paper lanterns." Readers get to peer in at the small, diverse figures making dinner, throwing a party, dancing, even stretching tin cans on a string between houses to talk on the "phone." The brilliant colors of the changing sky connect to the illumination within—as if originating from the same source. Light and relationships envelop the journey in security and quiet joy: the child's mother watches as her son leaves, waves to a friend on a skateboard, and plays with his dog in the park. Memorable language contributes to the mood, as a raccoon is observed "taking a bath in squares of yellow light." The compositions are rendered in ink, watercolor, letterpress, and digital collage. Readers will want to revisit these pages of impressionistic trees, buildings that blur as they recede into the vanishing point, and captivating combinations of fully realized scenes with transparent objects outlined in delicate lines. The narrative ends with a quickening step toward the loved one waving behind the curtain—and a story shared in a snuggle. VERDICT This evocative portrait elevates an everyday routine to a wonder-filled walk of discovery. Perfect for one-on-one and small group sharing.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library
★ 2017-08-02
Readers are invited to match their observant eyes with those of a child out for an evening walk.A young child of color puts on a red hoodie and goes for a walk in his neighborhood in the hours between sunset and bedtime. The neighborhood is mostly residential with two-story homes, apartment houses, and some small businesses. The family dog goes along as the child (referred to as "you" throughout in the second-person narrative) notes the animals—a cat and a raccoon—they pass by. The child notes the windows and what the people or animals that can be seen within their frames are doing; they may be playing an instrument or dancing or painting. At the end of the walk they go past a house with no lights on; its windows "leave you to fill them up with stories." Finally, home beckons, and child and mother curl up in a comfy chair for a bedtime story. Denos' story is quiet, thoughtful, and paced to the beat of a gentle rhythm. Debut illustrator Goodale's delicately detailed ink, watercolor, letterpress, and digital collage illustrations display palettes of the evening and night skies with beautifully nuanced shades of yellow, gold, and blue. The red-hooded child of color with dog can't help but recall Peter and Willie, and this book is a lovely, affirming follow-up. A warmhearted tale of a child, a dog, and their peaceful, friendly, and inviting neighborhood. (Picture book. 3-6)
