Today is the official start of spring. With all the crazy weather it may not seem like spring in your area, or like mine, spring-like weather may have been teasing you for a few weeks now. The fluctuations may confuse children, but Sophie can help get them back on track to spring, or how to know when spring has spring.

Spring for Sophie
Written by Yael Werber
Illustrated by Jen Hill
A Paula Wiseman Book  2/21/2017
978-1-4814-5134-5
32 pages   Ages 4—8

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“Sophie watches and waits for signs of spring. Day and day, the same snow is frozen outside her window and the skies above are as gray as the day before. And Sophie thinks,

“Will spring ever come and how will I know it is here?

“In this debut picture book, celebrate the wonder of the seasons and the coming of spring one day at a time as seen through a child’s eyes.” [INSIDE JACKET]

Review
[WC 350]
Outside it is cold, cloudy, and wrapped in white . . . day after day. When will spring come? Sophie is tired of winter and ready for spring to arrive. But how will Sophie know when spring is on its way? Her parents try to help, giving her important clues to the arrival of spring. Sophie learns to notice spring is on its way by hearing, seeing, feeling, and touching.
First, she hears the returning birds singing and chirping. Then, Sophie uses her feet to feel spring’s change. Instead of hard and frozen, the snow becomes slushier, the ground soft and muddy. Sophie smells the air, waiting for the odors of spring: dirt and rain. She touches the new grass and the flower stems as they poke through the earth.

In her quest for spring’s arrival, Sophie uses her five senses: hearing, seeing, feeling, and touching. No one tells Sophie how to taste spring’s arrival. Can we taste spring? How will Sophie use her sense of taste to know spring is on its way?
The illustrations (gouache with digital retouching) depict winter and the coming of spring in ways children will easily recognize. The pace is a slow progression from a white, cold, and frozen winter to spring, but when spring has sprung—Wow! The green washes over the area with newness only Mother Nature and artist Jen Hill can create. The little details are nice. Bare tree limbs beginning to sprout little buds at the end of each limb. Sophie sits by the fire, holding her red kite. In a birdhouse, a bluebird mom holds her baby. (A baby bluebird in winter is not an accurate scene, but children will appreciate the maternal love.) Check more info if you want to get the most beautiful baby toys.
Yael Werber’s picture book debut, Spring for Sophie, is a beautifully illustrated story about the changing of seasons and how we long for those changes. Life looks new and fresh, warm and inviting. Sophie is impatient for spring to arrive, but she does her best to spot its arrival through all five senses. Children anxious for spring and then summer will appreciate Spring for Sophie.

SPRING FOR SOPHIE. Text copyright © 2017 by Yael Werber. Illustrations copyright © 2017 by Jen Hill. Reproduced by permission of the publisher, A Paula Wiseman Book, New York, NY.

Amazon—Indie Books—Apple Books—A Paula Wiseman Book/Simon & Schuster

Add SPRING FOR SOPHIE to Your Goodreads Shelf HERE.

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Reprinted with permission from SPRING FOR SOPHIE © 2017 by Yael Werber, A Paula Wiseman Book, an imprint of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers. Illustrations © 2017 by Jen Hill.

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Copyright © 2017 by Sue Morris/Kid Lit Reviews. All Rights Reserved

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Spring for Sophie
Written by Yael Werber
Illustrated by Jen Hill
A Paula Wiseman Book 2/21/2017
9781481451345