Heatwave

Readers can tell that the heat is on from the get-go in this climate-oriented picture book—its pages are deep red, against which the landscape and figures are rendered in spidery lines and grayscale tones. At the beach, folks droop hoping for a shred of respite. A child and a dog sit and swelter instead of chasing a ball, a newspaper front page reads “RECORD HEAT ACROSS GLOBE,” and minimal, staccato text (“100 degrees,// in the shade.// Try not to burn”) appears as enervated as the figures look. Then the rain arrives—at first, drop by blue drop, and then in striations and torrents that vanquish the red hues in favor of a cool, aqueous blue. As the people seek shelter, rain and moonrise give way to the blue-hued night’s temperatures and an individual’s preparations to sleep in the breeze of a fan. Redniss (Heatwave) eschews hard climate-change-related information in this spare work that aptly depicts the sensory experience of living amid one hot, hot planet’s various cycles. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (May)