Review by Booklist Review
What starts out feeling like a mature version of Goodnight Moon, with objects being thanked rather than told goodnight, quickly transforms into a mysterious, sprawling adventure. Beginning at the most basic level, color-separated images that thank yellow, red, and blue demonstrate how the colors combine to build the images. Next, the early elements of an ordinary day are thanked, including bed, alarm clock, shower, towel, cup, bread, and jam. Soon, however, the arrival of a surprise package sends the narrative in a sharp new direction with "thank you, map" and "thank you, promise." Individual objects are presented on a white background (thank you, boots, camera, flashlight, and compass), then the illustrations expand into larger two-page landscapes. New avenues are opened by a bicycle, train, bus, plane, and even a parachute. The vocabulary creates images just as the illustrations do, with expressive phrases like "thank you, cacophony" and "thank you, caution" and "thank you, fear." The adventure lasts a year, thankings of each season showing the passage of time, until the colors separate back out at the end. As an artistic and writing exercise, readers must consider, what makes an impact in life? What experiences matter? The intricately patterned illustrations are richly textured and add depth to the spare text. This long-form picture book is unique, deceptively simple, and well worth exploring.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Striking, stylish illustrations distinguish an epic read from creative team Icinori (Issun Boshi). Crisp-edged, silkscreen-like images in a palette of muted red, faded gold, and deep turquoise give the pages the look of vintage advertisements. As a silhouetted protagonist wakes, the story presents at first as a catalog of objects ("Thank you, alarm clock.// Thank you, bed") and rituals ("Thank you, soap.// Thank you, shower"), accompanied by repeating bursts of gratitude. When a mysterious box is opened ("Thank you surprise.// Thank you map"), the pace shifts into high gear and preparations begin, necessitating a raid on a piggy bank ("Thank you, hammer"). The ambitious, world-girdling expedition that follows stretches across weathers and seasons as the child is seen cycling across a snowy field under skeins of geese ("Thank you, cold"), traveling through a city, traversing a jungle, crossing an ocean, flying in a balloon, encountering mysteries in Earth's depths--and then, with a new sense of self, arriving home. Throughout this meta creation that recasts exploration in an unexpected language, even the work's colors and shapes are addressed ("Thank you, yellow... red... blue"). Characters are portrayed with varying skin tones. Ages 4--8. (Nov.)
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Review by Kirkus Book Review
There's much to be thankful for. The book's narrator--rendered in a blueish silhouette--rises and gets dressed before leaving home to follow a treasure map to something special. Along the way, our protagonist expresses thanks for a growing catalog of items and concepts, from individual colors ("Thank you, yellow / thank you, red") to household items ("Thank you, alarm clock / Thank you, bed") to ideas such as fear and homecoming to, finally, the colors again. Full-page illustrations highlighting single objects transition into grand, full-spread vistas and busy scenes as the protagonist traverses land, sea, and sky while the seasons pass. Paired with simple text made up of brief "thank you" sentences, the story unfolds through the elegant, textured images. It isn't always readily apparent how some of the statements correspond to the action depicted; this is a tale that begs readers to linger and wonder about what it means to be grateful. Full comprehension will require a reread, given the sudden yet subtle and purely visual story developments, but the beauty of the artwork makes it well worth the journey. A limited but vivid palette of primary colors simultaneously soothes with its blues and energizes with its red and yellows, creating an aesthetically pleasing, thought-provoking, and engaging experience. A whimsical, enriching, and deeply rewarding adventure in gratitude.(Picture book. 4-8) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
