When Sunlight Tiptoes

by Gillian Sze, Soyeon Kim (Illustrator)

Overview

Vibrant language and rhythm celebrate the start of a new day in this uplifting poem about a city waking up.

On a beautiful, sunny morning, a family runs errands along a city street. They visit a bakery, flower shop and fruit market. Exuberant in sounds and sights—a baker sugaring tarts, flowers greeting passers-by and pigeons cooing—the story ends as a new day of sparkling possibility begins. Written in pantoum form and illustrated with delightful three-dimensional diorama images that play with light and shadow, When Sunlight Tiptoes is sure to brighten the day of our littlest readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459834507
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	03/14/2023
Pages:	20
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 6.00(h) x 0.38(d)
Age Range:	3 Months to 2 Years

About the Author

Gillian Sze is the author of multiple poetry collections and picture books, including My Love For You Is Always and You Are My Favourite Color. Her first picture book The Night is Deep and Wide was listed as one of the Best Books for Kids in 2021 by the New York Public Library. Originally from Winnipeg, she now resides in Montreal, where she teaches creative writing and literature.

Soyeon Kim is a Korean-born artist and educator currently living in Toronto. She is a graduate of the visual arts and education programs at York University and has participated in artist residences at the Hermitage (St. Petersburg, Russia), Spark Box Studios (Picton, Ontario) and the Toronto Public Library. She has illustrated a number of children's picture books, including Once Upon an Hour, You Are Stardust, Wild Ideas, Is This Panama?, Sukaq and the Raven, You Are Never Alone and A Last Goodbye. Soyeon won the Amelia Frances Howard-Gibbon Illustrator’s Award in 2013.

Editorial Reviews

02/13/2023

A family welcomes the start of a new day when “sunlight tiptoes over our eyes” in this reiterative picture book, composed as a pantoum whose interwoven quatrains appear on successive pages. Lines articulate sensory details as the family experiences the sights, smells, and sounds of their friendly city: “The flowers are out for show,/ and fruits bask in the stands./ Each yellow pop shouts, ‘Hello!’/ We carry sweetness in our hands,” Sze writes. Kim casts delicate 3-D dioramas in spring-like hues, showcasing the interracial family’s loving care for one another in several images of the sedate trio hugging or holding hands. Scenes turn fantastical when pigeons carry aloft the light-brown-skinned child protagonist, and a concluding moment emanates warmth as the trio relish the sun, the poem having come full circle for a satisfying read. Ages up to 2. (Mar.)

Publishers Weekly

A gentle story of everyday wonder. Recommended.”

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

03/01/2023

PreS-K—A beautiful celebration of morning as a family of three enjoys the energy of the baker sugaring tarts and the light that is opening up the skies. Told in a closed pantoum form (Malayan), the verses almost become circular as phrases echo or harken back to previous pages. VERDICT Accompanied by soft illustrations that match the morning mood, this is a wonderful way to begin a day with children and set them up to speak to their own beginnings.

School Library Journal