A Day So Gray
by Marie Lamba
illustrated by Alea Marley
(Clarion, 2019)
for purchase info, click here
Below are honors, reviews and press (with links where available). I’ll add more as they (hopefully!) occur. 😉 Thanks for popping by! 🙂
HONORS:
25 Favorite Children’s Books About Winter – Imaginationsoup
Holiday Book Gifting – Picture Books for Christmas and Winter – “Great book for growth mindset and also writing about colors!” – ReadingPowerGear
REVIEWS:
KIRKUS says “thought-provoking and poetic”
“The thought-provoking and poetic text effectively celebrates balanced, helpful relationships and a positive, almost magical way of seeing and appreciating the world….Cozy up with this book to start a conversation about finding what’s bright when things seem dull.”
SHELFAWARENESS says “enchanting…ethereal”
“Lamba’s words encourage readers to seek out the tiny scraps of beauty that brighten life’s doldrums…Marley creates an enchanting soft-focus winterscape drenched in light…sharing A DAY SO GRAY’s subtle beauty as a colors look-and-find could create a lovely one-on-one bonding time for caregivers and children ages four through seven. Whenever a day is gray and lonely, this cozy reminder to look on the colorful side will invite smiles and lift spirits.”
BOOKPAGE says “colors pop off the page”
“At its core this story, told entirely in dialogue, is not just about gratitude. It’s about the virtues of slowing down to notice the world around us. In enumerating all the colors she sees in winter, the optimist is able to appreciate what nature has to offer and extend that gift to her friend. Illustrator Alea Marley’s colors pop off the page, particularly in the snowy outdoor spreads, and when the friends head inside, she builds a cozy, intimate world of soft pet cats, steaming cocoa and warm blankets. ‘Boring’ and bleak become colorful when it is beauty you seek.”
Picturebooks4learning says “lovely story to share”
“Mindfulness is such an important concept to teach children. It allows them to focus on the small things and enjoy the beauty in every day. Marie Lamba wrote a lovely lyrical story that follows two friends as they find common ground on a cold winter day. The first girl introduced in the story sees winter as a sad and dreary time. Unfazed, her friend shows her the beauty in the tiny details of the season. The end of the story shows the friends coming together and enjoying their friendship. The illustrations by Alea Marley are enchanting and paint readers a beautiful winter wonderland. The hues that she used perfectly complement the text and draw readers into the story. This is a lovely story to share with readers of all ages during the winter season.”
SCHOOL LIBRARY JOURNAL
“A good choice for storytimes on cold winter days that will encourage youngsters to see ‘so much more than gray.’”
IMAGINATIONSOUP
“This celebration of details and shifting your perspective might be just what you need on a so-called gray day.”
BOOKSFORKIDSBLOG
“It’s a day that is much more than gray, in Marie Lamba’s forthcoming salute to the ways of bleak days, A Day So Gray (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Clarion, 2019), who shows how to “always look on the bright side of life” in the variety of different seasons. After all, the girl who hates the few hues of winter is really taking an overzealously black-and-white position on seasonal colors. Artist Alea Marley’s appealingly vibrant wintry scenes and illustrations and her charming little girls who make their cases well can speak for most of us who can, if we try, find something to love in all the seasons.
Hot chocolate, anyone? It’s there, too, in shade and hue!”
PRESS:
Featured in School Library Journal’s blog A Fuse #8 Production: “It’s All Relative: An Unexpected Trend in What We Value,” July 17, 2019
Marie Lamba, author 