cover image Where Did You Go Today?

Where Did You Go Today?

Jenny Duke. Child’s Play, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-78628-201-9

An ordinary afternoon at the playground becomes something more via the mind’s eye. “Guess what?” Duke begins, as a child recounts a day’s explorations while walking hand-in-hand with an adult. From a swing set, the child flies over the trees toward the moon, and a slide’s steep dive becomes a snowy mountaintop descent alongside skiers and snowboarders. As the youth, wearing pigtails and layers of purple and green, moves through the inclusive playground, page turns transform the landscape from ordinary to imaginative: a merry-go-round near a pond becomes a ship at sea; a camel-shaped rocker becomes a desert adventure. Duke’s sparse poetic narrative allows the reader to linger on her textured, surreal illustrations, which evoke the pulse of adventure and sensory exploration (“I crawled ashore.../ through the dark and cold”) all the way home. A quiet celebration of the limitless world within. Ages 3–6. [em](Sept.) [/em]