Access Denied
IMPORTANT! If you’re a store owner, please make sure you have Customer accounts enabled in your Store Admin, as you have customer based locks set up with EasyLockdown app. Enable Customer Accounts
There Was a Shadow
A Picture Book
- Regular price
- $29.99
- Sale price
- $29.99
- Regular price
-
- Unit price
- / per
From New York Times Best Children's Book author Bruce Handy, a luminous picture book that invites careful observation of light and shadow in the natural world, as well as in our own emotional landscape.
As the sun makes its daily journey across the sky, light comes down to illuminate our world. Moving and dancing along with this light come a variety of shadows-those cast by the sun and those cast by our feelings, minds, and memories. Here we follow a girl from dawn through dusk into night as she and her friends play with their shadows, take refuge in the shade of a large tree, and set out again for home in the violet glow of twilight.
With a lyrical text from Bruce Handy and dramatic, sensitive art from award-winning illustrator Lisk Feng, There Was a Shadow invites readers to look up and down, in and out--to notice the position of the sun and the corresponding length or shortness of shadows, as well as the subtle ways in which light and shadow reveal and obscure things both in the world and in ourselves.
With images that swell and overflow with light, this is a picture book that is sure to awe and delight.
As the sun makes its daily journey across the sky, light comes down to illuminate our world. Moving and dancing along with this light come a variety of shadows-those cast by the sun and those cast by our feelings, minds, and memories. Here we follow a girl from dawn through dusk into night as she and her friends play with their shadows, take refuge in the shade of a large tree, and set out again for home in the violet glow of twilight.
With a lyrical text from Bruce Handy and dramatic, sensitive art from award-winning illustrator Lisk Feng, There Was a Shadow invites readers to look up and down, in and out--to notice the position of the sun and the corresponding length or shortness of shadows, as well as the subtle ways in which light and shadow reveal and obscure things both in the world and in ourselves.
With images that swell and overflow with light, this is a picture book that is sure to awe and delight.
Praise for There Was a Shadow
A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2024 (One of only five picture books!) A Bookshop.org Best Picture Book of 2024 A 2025 Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year A Publishers Weekly 2024 Summer Read A Publishers Weekly New and Noteworthy Children’s Book of May 2024 "Handy’s words and Feng’s images exquisitely intertwine to cast shadows in a new light: Three children and a dog frolic in a meadow, accompanied by their jubilant doubles, then rest under the canopy of a tree, where shade equals sanctuary, before making their way home as day gradually stretches into night."
New York Times's "Best Children's Books of 2024"
A poetic look at the shadows and their emotional resonance that a child encounters throughout a day. Bright, expressive illustrations of nature and home.
Bank Street College of Education
STARRED REVIEW! ? “Lulling, mesmerizing lines by Handy observe shadows as they grow and fade, reflecting life over the course of a day... A reiterative narrative voice invites readers to pay attention... Short sentences, progressing stepwise, reveal fresh surprises... Atmospheric spreads by Lisk pay attention to the play of light and its source—sunlight casts warm shadows, the indistinct shadows of dusk contain mystery, and moonlit shadows enchant. Together, the creators’ shared intensity gives this carefully observed work its resonance.”
Publishers Weekly
“Feng’s soft-lined illustrations visually articulate the essence of Handy’s ‘stretching shadows,’ easing day into night. It is a gentleness not often found in modern landscapes dominated by lightbulbs that jolt light-dark/dark-light without warning. Here, readers can adjust to illuminative changes incrementally, moving slowly, as children often need to when they’re processing experiences… In darkness, moon-dancing shapes are assigned emotions: ‘happy, sad, and other feelings, too.’ The flowers of daylight are replaced with hints of luminescent creatures in tall grass. These scenes leave room for mystery and suggest to us that we don’t always need to avoid the shadows we encounter or the complicated feelings that arise within us.”
New York Times
About the Authors
Bruce Handy is a journalist, humorist, editor, and essayist. The Happiness of a Dog with a Ball in Its Mouth, his first book for kids, was named a Best Children’s Book of 2021 by the New York Times. He is also the author of Wild Things: The Joy of Reading Children’s Literature as an Adult and the picture book What If One Day…, illustrated by Ashleigh Corrin. He lives with his family in New York City.
Lisk Feng is an award-winning illustrator. She has worked with clients such as the New York Times, the New Yorker, and Apple, and has illustrated several children’s books, including Everest, A Hug Is for Holding Me, and Our World. In addition to receiving recognitions from the Society of Illustrators and Communication Arts, she was selected for the 2019 Forbes “30 under 30” list for Art and Style. Originally from China, she now lives in New York City.
You May Also Like
View more
This product currently has no recommended items.
Sign up to our Newsletter
Our weekly newsletter is a curated collection of interviews, articles, stunning images and books we think you’ll love. Sign up to get 20% off.
In accordance with our privacy policy, you may unsubscribe at any time.
Invalid password
Enter
- Choosing a selection results in a full page refresh.