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July 1, 2020/in Picture Book 5-8 Infant/Junior /by bookskeeps
BfK Rating:
BfK 243 July 2020
Reviewer: Jill Bennett
ISBN: 978-1912650484
Price: £12.99
Publisher: Scallywag Press
Genre: Picture Book
Age Range: 5-8 Infant/Junior
Length: 40pp
Buy the Book

A New Green Day

Author: Antoinette Portis

If ever there was an invitation to look anew at the natural world, then Antoinette Portis’ sequence of lyrical riddles offers just that.

We follow a little girl from sunrise to nightfall as she responds to morning’s invitation to “Come out and play!”

Once she’s up and outdoors a series of voices belonging to a snail, a leaf, an inchworm, a tadpole a pebble, a cloud, rain, lightning, thunder, mud, shadow and finally night, pose a clever riddle on each recto, the answer being revealed at the turn of the page. “I’m a map of my own / green home. / Follow my roads / and climb” – A mountain path perhaps? Turning to the verso we discover those words were spoken by leaf, a leaf whose shape and veins are almost mirrored by one of the trees standing behind.

Both Portis’ illustrations and verses are beautifully textured: “I’m a sweet sucked smooth / in the river’s mouth. / Let me roll in your pocket,” is a speckled pebbled held on the girl’s outstretched palm above a grainy shore.

Every riddle asks readers and listeners to embrace the great outdoors, to re-experience the familiar with all their senses alert and with a willingness to allow each encounter with nature to reveal unexpected riches.

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https://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/a-new-green-day.jpg 500 495 bookskeeps http://booksforkeeps.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/12/bfklogo.png bookskeeps2020-07-01 14:31:002021-02-25 14:33:19A New Green Day

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