There Is a Rainbow

K-Gr 4–The perfect pandemic book is here. In illustrations that dynamically emulate a (aesthetically attuned, highly skilled) child’s drawing, a text with the lilt of a hop, skip, and a jump sets up expectations and neatly subverts them. On the other side of a screen, shown as a laptop on a child’s legs and setting up an expectation of a game or perhaps streaming, is a classic grid that now has come to mean Zoom! Outside a window where one child stands, looking, is a parade of people, safely distanced and in masks, coping with a new version of real life. Chalk drawings declare that “Black Lives Matter” and “Stay Safe,” as well as “Thank You Heroes.” To children, it will be a relief to see their current lives in these pages; for adults, it’s hope for a new normal. On the other side of sorrow, there are hugs, and on the other side of today, there is tomorrow.