Review by Booklist Review
Beginning during the last days of winter in 2020, the text recalls how everything changed. A bustling city neighborhood in one scene is empty of people in the next, after everyone outside goes inside, all around the world. Essential workers are still on the job, as the double-page spreads depicting a hospital make clear, but the book's focus shifts to what's happening indoors, where families are together at home: working, baking, worrying, playing games, waiting, and laughing. Wearing masks, people venture outside sometimes but maintain distance from each other with fences, "both real and pretend." Inside their homes, they wait for a spring when people can be together again. Throughout the book, a friendly black cat can be found sitting, walking, and observing the ever-changing scenes. The main text doesn't mention the pandemic. Carefully worded and fluid when read aloud, it simply observes the changes that children might have noticed, offering a springboard for conversation if young listeners have questions. The digital illustrations are beautifully composed and emotionally expressive. In the end, a double gatefold opens into a joyous four-page spread featuring a sunlit park where families and friends, unmasked, gather outdoors together. Reflecting shared experiences and hopes, here's a welcome picture book for our times.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Slowly, deliberately, Pham (Love Is Powerful) explores what changed about the world when Covid-19 hit. A street full of adults, children, dog walkers, and grandparents empties in the turn of a page: "Everybody who was OUTSIDE.../ ...went INSIDE." A black cat with a judicious eye roams the story's pages, gathering its disparate events into one narrative thread. "Well, almost everyone." Patients lie in hospital beds, tended to by health workers swathed in PPE. Others wait at home: "Some of us worked a little, some of us worked a lot... and some of us couldn't work at all." In one spread, friends and neighbors stand in groups, some shown in faded blue instead of full color; they're the ones who didn't make it, or who might not have. "So why did we all go inside?" Pham asks. "Mostly," she explains, "because everyone knew it was the right thing to do." The word virus is not mentioned: it's not a story that presents the science behind the pandemic. Instead, the Caldecott Honoree offers a record of a period of difficulty, a testimony both to loss experienced and moments of unexpected good. A moving author's note is included. Ages 3--6. Agent: Linda Pratt, Wernick & Pratt. (Jan.)
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Review by School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2--With sympathy and symmetry, Pham recreates the world pre-pandemic in digital illustrations that have the flow and dynamism of watercolors. She imagines a world where people from all walks of life enjoy being outside engaging in many activities until one day when it all comes to a halt--almost everyone goes inside. So begins this enlightening story of how a deadly pandemic forces everyone indoors. Image after vivid image shows people of many races and ethnicities going about their business and then the abruptly empty streets. Wildlife returns to the suburbs. Through the illustrated portrait-like scenes, people are shown in the hospital, facing job loss, death, upending of routines. Pham underscores the lives of essential workers and their dedication. She also touches on the Black Lives Matter protests during the summer of 2020, offering educators or parents a path for frank discussion about racial injustice. This hopeful work encourages readers to consider their own, ongoing paths through the pandemic, without ever denigrating or playing down the seriousness. VERDICT Poetic understatement and somber images capture the new normal in this essential purchase.--Annmarie Braithwaite, New York P.L.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
"Something strange happened on an unremarkable day just before the season changed. Everybody who was OUTSIDE...went INSIDE." The "something strange" is, of course, the COVID-19 pandemic, as safety protocols were put into place "all over the world. Everyone just went inside, shut their doors, and waited." (Except for essential workers, whom Pham acknowledges in the main text and a heartfelt appended note.) The story begins with one family. A little girl and her cat are shown looking out an apartment window. While the child remains inside, the cat travels around the city, and then the world, observing its surroundings and offering comfort and connection to everyone it encounters. The text remains general, never specifically mentioning the cat but instead describing universal experiences, observations, and emotions throughout this difficult time. The variety of people ("nearly every face painted in this book is inspired by a real person," per the author's note) and places shown in Pham's colorful, warm-hearted digital illustrations -- some spreads juxtapose many vignettes, while others focus on one scene -- reinforces her message: "On the outside, we are all different. But on the inside, we are all the same." The resilience of nature, too, is a repeated theme, with city parks, backyard gardens, and other lush green spaces offering solace and connotations of peace. Pham's story ends on an optimistic note, with the arrival of spring (and no more masks). We're not there yet -- but here's hoping we're on our way. Elissa Gershowitz March/April 2021 p.70(c) Copyright 2021. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Pham addresses the adversity and resulting growth experienced individually and collectively while the world sheltered in place. This uplifting reflection on the spring 2020 coronavirus lockdowns expounds on the resiliency of the human spirit as everyone the world over shut themselves indoors. Several different locales and styles of homes are depicted, highlighting the global impact of this almost universal experience. The simple, first-person narrative emphasizes we through deliberate pacing and repetitive use, firmly cementing the theme of togetherness and connection. While the narrative never explicitly names the virus, this accounting is sensitive to both the challenges and triumphs of navigating this new reality of shared vulnerability. A busy street scene filled with masked first responders and other essential workers is followed by a double-page montage of hospital views inspired by real events. One double-page spread shows families cooking and playing while also featuring anxious faces of adults and a frustrated child at a computer screen. These vignettes are outlined in angular edges, reflecting the uncertain, disjointed feelings experienced by all. A following spread shows a larger spectrum of daily moments, this time shaped in sturdy squares and rectangles that signal a newfound stability as people learned to endure and adapt. Told with a gentle but steadying reassurance, this book posits that despite differences or the distances among us, everyone stayed inside because "it was the right thing to do." Intentionally diverse, the characters represent a wide range of racial presentations. (This book was reviewed digitally with 11-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 30.5% of actual size.) This powerful ode to community delivers a timeless message of humility, perseverance, and hope. (author's note) (Picture book. 3-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
