5 stars
An absolutely beautiful time capsule of a book that captures both heartwarming and heartbreaking moments of lockdowns, quarantines, and the spread of Covid-19.
Pham’s artwork perfectly captures the happiness, stress, hope, sorrow, and frustration of the time. Through empty streets, flourishing wildlife, and homebound scenes, Pham shows some of the changes to the world where people mostly stayed inside. She also highlights the ways people connected even when they couldn’t be together.
One aspect that really makes this book shine is Pham’s incorporation of real world events and people. Various spreads depict stories shared in the media such as drive-by birthday parties, getting groceries for those who could not do so safely, signs to thank health care workers for saving loved ones, and new births during a time of such upheaval. It also shows the hardships faced such as the exhaustion of health care workers and the pain of losing someone. The most powerful spread features people from Pham’s life who were affected by the virus. Even before reading the explanation in the Author’s Note, the reader can see this is a special page as each person comes to life with Pham’s illustration. It serves as a beautiful remembrance.
This book also works well as a teaching moment for those who were very young during the height of the outbreak. There are many great talking moments throughout to help teach about things like working from home, online schooling, and those who kept working through the pandemic to keep things running such as sanitation workers, delivery people, grocery store workers, and mail carriers. The Author’s Note at the end provides caregivers with more information, which can then be passed on to children as they read.
Each page also includes a black cat worked somewhere into the artwork. A nice way to keep children engaged with the story as they look for the cat.
An absolutely stunning and beautiful book that celebrates life and human connections, and continues to work as a wonderful starting point to talking to young children about the recent pandemic.