They Say Blue, written and illustrated by Jillian Tamaki. Groundwood, 2018. $19.95 ages 4 and up

" ... but I don't need
to crack an egg to know
it holds an orange yolk
inside. I can't see my blood,
but I know it moves around
my body even when I am
perfectly still."

And when we play,
I feel it race faster
to keep up,"

Wow! I was watching the announcements yesterday from Roger Sutton, editor of the Horn Book, for the winners of the Boston Globe-Horn Book awards for 2018, and this is the winner in the picture book category. Congratulations, Jillian! It is a well-deserved award, and I will tell you why I think so.

I have just spent a month with a three-year old. Her wonder at the world, what she knows, and what she has seen, was evident every single day. Her imagination knows no bounds. Jillian Tamaki, in her first picture book for young children, has perfectly captured that world. Her young narrator loves the water, and notes that she has been told it's blue; but, it is not when it flows through her hands. Those things she can see, and some she can't, and what she can imagine, are expressed in lovely, flowing language that carries readers from page to page.

Her joy is shared with quiet candor as she moves from taking note of the colors she sees to the imaginative matters of her mind. When a grey sky and rain spoil her fanciful boat journey across a 'golden ocean', she bends to note the appearance of a purple flower and switches her attention to the new growth found in spring's arrival. From there, readers are invited to an appreciation for the passing of the seasons. It is the way a child's mind works!

There are so many opportunities to pause and consider the awareness of this child, and to talk about what is happening. In spring warmth she stretches her arms to the sky and becomes a tree. From that new perspective, she makes a decision:

"Standing tall, I angle my green
leaves to feel the sun.
I think I'll stay quiet and listen to
the sounds of the summer."

How lovely! Ms. Tamaki's acrylic and Photoshop artwork swirls with movement and an awareness of the child's internal rhythms, as she revels in everything she sees around her.

Imaginative and wonder-'full'!