{ "item_title" : "There Was a Shadow", "item_author" : [" Bruce Handy", "Lisk Feng "], "item_description" : "From New York Times Best Children's Book author Bruce Handy, a luminous picture book that invites careful observation of light and shadow in the natural world, as well as in our own emotional landscape.A New York Times Best Children's Book of 2024A Bookshop.org Best Picture Book of 2024A 2025 Bank Street College of Education Best Children's Book of the YearAs the sun makes its daily journey across the sky, light comes down to illuminate our world. Moving and dancing along with this light come a variety of shadows--those cast by the sun and those cast by our feelings, minds, and memories. Here we follow a girl from dawn through dusk into night as she and her friends play with their shadows, take refuge in the shade of a large tree, and set out again for home in the violet glow of twilight.With a lyrical text from Bruce Handy and dramatic, sensitive art from award-winning illustrator Lisk Feng, There Was a Shadow invites readers to look up and down, in and out--to notice the position of the sun and the corresponding length or shortness of shadows, as well as the subtle ways in which light and shadow reveal and obscure things both in the world and in ourselves.With images that swell and overflow with light, this is a picture book that is sure to awe and delight.", "item_img_path" : "https://covers1.booksamillion.com/covers/bam/1/59/270/406/1592704069_b.jpg", "price_data" : { "retail_price" : "18.95", "online_price" : "18.95", "our_price" : "18.95", "club_price" : "18.95", "savings_pct" : "0", "savings_amt" : "0.00", "club_savings_pct" : "0", "club_savings_amt" : "0.00", "discount_pct" : "10", "store_price" : "" } }

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A child heads outdoors, walking through a verdant and hilly rural landscape, as the sun rises and a shadow appears as the "last hint of night.” Thus begins an evocative exploration of shadows, both literal and metaphorical, in There Was a Shadow, written by Bruce Handy and illustrated by Lisk Feng. 

Handy examines the omnipresent, big and small shadows of the natural world, from the noontime shadow a tree casts, to the subtle shadows that land on a face or water. Feng's delicate, fine-lined illustrations bring these depictions to brilliant life on the page: The falling light casts the faintest shadows across the protagonist’s face as she stares straight at the reader. Feng then depicts sunlight shimmering upon rippling water, creating shadows in various shades of blue, which Handy describes as being "like a dance." 

A "thinking shadow . . . you could feel but not see" also plagues the protagonist: the feeling of worry. But it's momentary and soon darts away. As all the children head home, the shadows of late afternoon stretch until they disappear altogether with the setting sun. Dinner is served among cozy and comforting indoor shadows. Feng gives readers a peek of the night landscape with a palette of deep, rich cobalt and sapphire blues, while Handy closes the book with a satisfying and thought-provoking question about memories and dreams.

It is with tenderness and reverence for the interior world of children that Handy tells this multilayered story. There Was a Shadow flows like poetry and sparkles with Feng's beautifully wielded, sun-dappled colors, which impart mood and mystery. It's easy to get lost in these shadows, and when the journey ends, readers will want to head right back to the book’s beginning.