cover image Look at the Weather

Look at the Weather

Britta Teckentrup, trans. from the German by Shelley Tanaka. Owlkids (PGW, dist.), $19.95 (152p) ISBN 978-1-77147-286-9

German author-artist Teckentrup (Oskar and Mo) devotes four chapters of this long-format picture book to aspects of the weather: “Sun,” “Rain,” “Ice and Snow,” and “Extreme Weather.” Brief scientific facts (“When the air cools at night, the water vapor in the ground becomes dew”) alternate with lyrical observations (“The setting sun spreads its golden light over the ground”). The pages offer anywhere from a single sentence to several short paragraphs opposite evocative, silkscreen-style landscapes and meditative views of skies brushed with clouds, snowflakes, and driving rain. The images create a sense of grandeur, but they’re not detailed enough to represent cloud types or ice crystals, for example. Those interested in extreme weather may be disappointed by the calm, impressionistic representations of hurricanes and floods. The work is strongest when it looks at the way everyday weather makes humans feel and invites readers to reflect on their experiences. Each section finishes with questions: “Have you ever seen a sunset that seemed to fill the sky like a blanket of fire?” Climate change is broadly referred to toward the end but is not the book’s main focus. Ages 7–up. (Apr.)