Read-alikes: Two books about shadows
Read-alikes are one of those things that I don’t offer too often but that many of you seem to love, so I’m making a concerted effort to come up with more of them, though, interestingly, they usually pair themselves — that is, I don’t necessarily think them up but rather, they present themselves to me, which is what happened with these two titles below.
My Shadow by Robert Louis Stevenson, illustrated by Ted Rand (1990)
I’m not a huge Robert Louis Stevenson fan — I prefer his novels to his poetry if I have to choose, but also I spent enough years of my life studying the so-called Western canon to be pretty dang tired of the Dead White Men club that dominates the representation and discussion — but I am a huge fan of poetry, as you well know. And I am open to any book, anything really, that makes exposing my children to poetry an enjoyable and lovely experience for us all. This is where illustrated poems — especially those done well — come in.
My Shadow is particularly well-suited to children — it was originally part of Stevenson’s collection, A Child’s Garden of Verses, so there’s that, but Rand has added a lot here with his fuzzy watercolor images and the way they help make the shadows obvious on every page. This is a book I’ve found perfect for reading over breakfast, during our Morning Time — it’s short, it’s surprisingly entertaining given it was published in 1885, and even I have to admit: some things are canon for a reason. (Ugh. I don’t have to love it but I can recognize it with respect.) Respect to this book, which has been transformed into something even more worthy than the original alone.
There Was a Shadow by Bruce Handy, illustrated by Lisk Feng (2024)
Even the smallest humans know that there are shadows cast by the sun and shadows cast by our thoughts, emotions, and memories, and they are very different things, but somehow, sometimes feel the same.
This beautiful, meditative, and inventive book plays with that idea to a beautiful degree, first through Handy’s spare poetic text that gets specific with shadows in the world around us and then the shadows we may feel inside, and then through Feng’s dreamy and evocative digital illustrations, which complement the text perfectly and offer a dreamlike quality to this read.
Preschoolers will likely be drawn to the literal aspects of this story — yes, a hill makes a shadow, and a bug makes a shadow — but don’t underestimate its appeal for older readers, elementary-aged kiddos all the way through 5th grade, who of course understand that some shadows dance and others offer shade but some others, like the thinking shadow on a face, represent something else, something deeper, something we can often see with our hearts if not our eyes.
This is a lovely read.
Read good books and take good care 😘
Sarah
Believe it or not, we had There was a Shadow in our last haul from the library and I’m not sure we read it before returning it! Will definitely be checking out again in tandem with the one above. Thank you!