You Are the Loveliest

K-Gr 2–For young children with active imaginations, days are filled with wonder and intrigue. An unnamed girl is exploring her world, surrounded by the myriad toys and stuffed animals that are her companions. When life becomes more complicated, the girl prefers to spend time in her restful dreams and wakeful imaginings, where she finds the joy she sometimes lacks in her quotidian existence. From dawn to dusk, the young girl, who has blond hair and pink skin, experiences the varied emotions of childhood before settling in and pondering questions markedly larger than herself. This poetic story has been expertly translated from the original Dutch into English, using a blend of rhyming lines and free verse to craft each unique poem. As in the style of Shel Silverstein, the poems are brief, each one focusing on a particular observation of the girl in the story. Vacillating among whimsy, playfulness, sadness, and contemplation, the poems lovingly capture many of the complex and often challenging emotions felt by young children. Each spread features one poem against a fully illustrated backdrop that draws readers’ eyes as much as the text pleases their ears. The book is a thought-provoking look at how one can express emotions through poetry.