If I Was the Sunshine

by Julie Fogliano, Loren Long (Illustrator)

Overview

A breathtaking picture book about the relationships we share from New York Times bestselling storytellers Julie Fogliano and Loren Long in the tradition of The Runaway Bunny and Guess How Much I Love You.

if i was the sunshine
and you were the day
i’d call you hello!
and you’d call me stay

if you were the winter
and i was the spring
i’d call you whisper
and you’d call me sing...

Through clever, thought-provoking verse and warmly evocative art, New York Times bestsellers Julie Fogliano and Loren Long explore the awe-inspiring nature of relationships, love, and connection.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781481472432
Publisher:	Atheneum Books for Young Readers
Publication date:	05/07/2019
Pages:	48
Sales rank:	233,893
Product dimensions:	11.60(w) x 11.20(h) x 0.70(d)
Lexile:	NP (what's this?)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Julie Fogliano is the New York Times bestselling author of And Then It’s Spring and If You Want to See a Whale as well as the poetry collection When Green Becomes Tomatoes and the picture books If I Was the Sunshine, My Best Friend, and When’s My Birthday. Recipient of the 2013 the Ezra Jack Keats award, her books have been translated into more than ten languages. Julie lives in the Hudson Valley with her husband and three children. When she is not folding laundry or wondering what to make for dinner, she is staring out the window waiting for a book idea to fly by.

Loren Long illustrated President Barack Obama’s Of Thee I Sing; the newest version of The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper; Madonna’s second picture book, Mr. Peabody’s Apples; Nightsong by Ari Berk; Frank McCourt’s Angela and the Baby Jesus; Love by Matt de la Peña; and If I Was the Sunshine by Julie Fogliano. He also wrote and illustrated the Otis series and was part of the Design Garage for Jon Scieszka’s Trucktown series. Loren’s work has appeared in Time, Sports Illustrated, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, and The Atlantic. He lives with his wife and two sons in Cincinnati, Ohio. Visit him at LorenLong.com.

Editorial Reviews

02/25/2019

“If i was the sunshine/ and you were the day,” Fogliano (A House That Once Was) writes, “i’d call you hello!/ and you’d call me stay.” Each stanza of this lilting poem imagines a pair of partners in the natural world—winter and spring, thunder and cloud—and gives them the power to speak and to name each other: “i’d call you whisper/ and you’d call me sing.” To bestow a special, private name upon something draws the named closer to the namer, and each appellation echoes the intimacy shared by the poem’s speaker and the entity being addressed. Long (Love) begins the story on a farm, with a long view of a figure in overalls and a child holding hands, surrounded by the warmth of a summer morning. But he doesn’t stay focused on them. Instead, he pulls back, surveying the wilderness beyond the farm in spring, beneath a storm, and under snow before returning to farmland in summer dusk. Elements of the landscape (the mountains, the ocean) and the creatures that inhabit it (bear cubs, squirrels) are seen interacting in ways that mirror the relationships described in the poem. The word love never appears in Fogliano’s text, but it can be felt on every page. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (May)

Publishers Weekly

Fogliano’s unexpected yet somehow just-right phrasing delights the ear with its perfect cadence and tight rhymes that are wrapped up in a near call-and-response rhythm. . . . A mood piece offering a gentle meditation on connections in the natural world and in human experience, too.

The Horn Book

Dramatic artwork and clever verse combine in a book that will pique young listeners' imaginations. . . . The wordplay is fun, and the beautifully bold acrylic paintings have intense child-appeal.

Booklist

A gentle literary frolic whose creativity and tight patterning will make it a repeatable favorite for youngsters. . . . Adults and young audiences alike will be charmed by the verses and embrace this new approach to bedtime; call it read.

BCCB

Dramatic artwork and clever verse combine in a book that will pique young listeners' imaginations. . . . The wordplay is fun, and the beautifully bold acrylic paintings have intense child-appeal.

Booklist

05/01/2019

PreS-Gr 1—A farm is the setting for a fanciful dialogue between a mother and daughter that occurs over the span of a day. The duo appears at the beginning and conclusion, viewed mostly at a distance or from behind. The one close-up reveals a girl with dark, straight ponytails, her face golden from the illumination of fireflies. Each conversational segment spans two spreads; the fourth (last) line, appearing after the pause of the page turn, rhymes with the second. Some ideas are imaginative and abstract: "if i was the silence/and you were a sound/i'd call you missing/and you'd call me found." Others are tangible and humorous: "if i was an apple/and you were a worm/you'd call me lunch/and i'd call you squirm." The dance of words and pictures is lovely, although it is curious that Fogliano abandoned the subjunctive mood in a book about "ifs." Long's acrylic paintings, some recalling the patchwork landscapes of Grant Wood, will show well with groups. Large figures fill the foreground, from a dappled cow whose bulk crosses the gutter to a hibernating grizzly bear spilling out of the verso, his frame pushing a field of snow up toward the heavens like a too-small blanket. VERDICT The creative use of language and accessible, pleasing imagery will lead to rereadings, which in turn, will inspire listeners to invent their own playful verses.—Wendy Lukehart, District of Columbia Public Library

School Library Journal

2019-02-13

A metaphor-rich venture that is far preferable to average Runaway Bunny read-alike fare.

Raising the bar for cutesy paeans to snuggly feelings, Fogliano uses surprising connections to telegraph love with frequently unexpected results. She begins, all in lowercase, with a gentle, "if i was the sunshine / and you were the day / i'd call you hello! // and you'd call me stay." Never approaching syrupy, the comparisons range from the intuitive to the unpredictable. "if i was the silence / and you were a sound / i'd call you missing // and you'd call me found." Soon it becomes clear that although love is common to each of these pairings, the emotion changes depending on the creature. "if you were a bird / and i was a tree / you'd call me home // and i'd call you free." Readers are left understanding that what is going on here is far more than simple affection between parent and child. Her choice to eschew the subjunctive mood makes the comparisons seem tantalizingly possible. Jewel-toned images full of light, formed by sumptuous acrylic paints, bring the distant near and the miniscule close. Younger readers will wrap themselves in Long's art while older kids strive to parse the meaning behind each of these gentle rhymes.

Gentle on ear and eye, a keen display of relationships bound together in love and complexity. (Picture book. 4-7)

Kirkus Reviews