cover image Some Days Are Lonely

Some Days Are Lonely

Young-Ah Kim, illus. by Ji-Soo Shin. APA/Magination, $14.95 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4338-1288-0

A small orange bear in yellow rain boots is alone in a dark world of towering trees and storm clouds. Kim uses tangible metaphors to describe sensations of overwhelming loneliness (“Slop, plop. Slop, plop./ My steps feel heavy,/ sinking deep into the mud./ Like cotton dipped in water,/ my heart feels damp”), and Shin’s digitally colored crayon drawings initially keep to a gloomy palette of charcoals, browns, and dank greens. In one spread, the lonely bear—sitting on a rock, head buried in its arms—is surrounded by cavelike darkness. Streaking white raindrops correspond with the bear’s lowest moment, as it bursts into tears, but as the weather brightens, so does its mood, and a visit from a frog with a rainbow umbrella brings color back to the woodland. The book is primarily intended as a teaching tool (related activities for children and notes for parents are included), but Shin’s emotionally evocative drawings and Kim’s sympathetic prose (“Lonely days can arrive unexpectedly./ We all have those days”) help mitigate the story’s more didactic tendencies. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)