An inquisitive but bored child enlists a bird's help for an imaginative journey in Elly MacKay's diaphanous and fanciful picture book In the Clouds.
A girl with round red glasses perched on her nose and braids trailing down her back greets a yellow bird through a narrow crack in a rain-spattered window. The girl, suddenly the bird's size, asks, "Is the sun shining above the clouds? Will you take me there?" and the pair take flight. Through changing skyscapes, they explore coral crusted islands, a volcano and a thunderstorm, the sun's rays shining through diffuse light to splendid effect. The child poses a stream of questions both factual and rhetorical as the two explore: "Do you think there are clouds on other planets? If so, are they as beautiful as ours?" Their flight of fancy concludes in a burst of sunlight and joyful exuberance back at the windowsill once again.
MacKay (Red Sky at Night; The Secret Fawn) brings depth and dimension to each page with luminous photographs of layered paper dioramas. The child's meandering inquiry conveys wonder and genuine curiosity, which melds seamlessly with the glowing full-page artwork. Some of the child's questions are answered in the backmatter while others may prompt deeper thought and conversation.
Fans of Soyeon Kim and Samantha Cotterill's diorama artwork should appreciate the radiant effect MacKay achieves here, and the text is an excellent companion to the philosophical inquiry of K.A. Holt's I Wonder. An imaginative and incandescent escape. --Kit Ballenger, youth librarian, Help Your Shelf