Linda Booth Sweeney (The Systems Thinking Playbook), making her children's book debut, and Jana Christy (How to Hug) pay homage to the changing of seasons in this picture book tale of a warmhearted family and their cozy seaside home.
Laundry wafts on the line as a child and dog peer out of an upstairs window in a blue-roofed cape house. "When the wind blows..." reads the opening line in a hand-lettered purple that matches the home's exterior. "Windows rattle./ Doors creeaaak./ Chimes sing./ We peek," the text continues in white type that pops against cornflower blue skies. Grandma takes the boy and dog out to fly a yellow kite, while his mother, clad in a blue coat, pushes a baby in a red stroller. A lighthouse hints at a nearby body of water, and cows complete the pastoral scene. "Trees dance./ Spiders curl./ Mice shiver./ Leaves swirl." The beach grasses in Christy's multimedia art mimic the swirl of the leaves, where children can spy a spider's web and two mice taking refuge. The repetition of "When the wind blows..." gives the story its structure, and Christy adds a visual storyline. As the child loses hold of the kite and impatiently pursues it (his mother recovers the kite), Grandma waves at a sailor and a top hat blows off the groom departing the church. "Skies darken./ Thunder booms," driving everyone inside.
Sweeney pens rhyming couplets that softly mimic spring breezes, while Christy balances bird's eye-view perspectives with intimate portraits of this closely knit family. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness