How to Have a Thought: A Walk with Charles Darwin

For readers who feel constantly hurried along, Day (Nothing) offers up an anecdote from the life of Charles Darwin (1809–1882) as permission to do something downright rebellious: slow down and let their thoughts wander. Fittingly discursive text describes how Darwin literally walked his way to the world-changing idea of natural selection, working through ideas on daily circuits around a thinking path at the country estate where he settled after his journey on the HMS Beagle. Hooper (Jump for Joy) builds on the story’s mood by mixing her own drawings with found images and textures, creating the sense of leafing through a journal. A looping line punctuated by short cairns wittily portrays both the piles that Darwin stacked and his knocking one stone away with his walking stick after each round (“Ordinary problems were one-rock problems. More difficult problems were two-rocks, three-rocks, even four-rocks”). Slyly chatty and insightful, it’s a fittingly meandering biography that introduces the work it can take to sort through difficult concepts—and invites readers to join in. Ages 4–8. (Jan.)