{"id":43518,"date":"2025-05-22T10:04:41","date_gmt":"2025-05-22T14:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/redeemedreader.com\/?p=43518"},"modified":"2025-06-12T16:02:43","modified_gmt":"2025-06-12T20:02:43","slug":"three-picture-books-to-make-you-think-echo-home-and-a-cup-of-quiet","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/redeemedreader.com\/three-picture-books-to-make-you-think-echo-home-and-a-cup-of-quiet\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Picture Books to Make You Think: Echo, Home, and A Cup of Quiet"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In <\/em>Echo, a spoiled little boy learns that real friendship doesn\u2019t mean total agreement.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*Echo<\/em> by Adam Rex. Dial, 2025, 46 pages.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Reading Level<\/strong>: Picture Book, ages 0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended<\/strong> for: ages 2-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJunior Junior was born in a big house on the side of a mountain . . . and the echo was born soon after.\u201d The echo come from the other side of the canyon, and it repeats everything Junior says. At first it repeats first words like \u201cMINE!\u201d, which aren\u2019t conducive to friendship. But when it agrees that \u201cJunior Junior is the greatest in the world,\u201d what better friend could there be? Still, life is a bit lonely until another child moves in nearby. She\u2019s a girl, and she sometimes (gasp!) disagrees. How can they be friends?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the time Junior meets his echo, young readers will catch on that real friends will sometimes have their own ideas. They may even sometimes be right while we\u2019re wrong! As the friendship progresses, we could even learn from each other. This simple lesson is pictured in a way that lets them draw their own conclusions, and the best conclusion is, I\u2019m not Number One. And that\u2019s okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom Line<\/strong>: A friendly, humorous look at taming a rampant ego.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Home features big thoughts that may eventually get too big.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Home<\/em> by Matt de la Pe\u00f1a, illustrated by Loren Long. G. P. Putnam\u2019s Sons (PRH), 2025, 40 pages.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Reading Level<\/strong>: Picture Book, ages 4-8<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended for<\/strong>: ages 2-6<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHome\u201d can be a lot of things, like a \u201ctired lullaby and a late-night traffic that mumbles in through a crack in your curtains.\u201d It can be your grandpa\u2019s houseboat or your city apartment surrounded by noise or even the rumble of your dad\u2019s eighteen-wheeler. Home can also be lost in a flood, or a fire, or a job loss that forces a move. \u201cA day may come when it\u2019s hard to find your footing, when each gust of wind threatens to sweep you up and carry you away.\u201d But the family will regroup and neighbors will help make a new home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The pictures are lovely, painted in a folksy style reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton, with gaudy sunsets, sparkly beaches and wide vistas. The book is worth perusing just for that, but the text gets confusing at \u201cHome is not the walls we build up around our orderly little lives but the wild, wild world outside.\u201d I thought Home was the space we all carve out from the world, but from that point the perspective broadens until \u201cIt\u2019s the thump, thump, thump of the earth\u2019s sentimental song inviting you into the harmony of things.\u201d So . . . \u201chome\u201d is everything? If it\u2019s too abstract for me, it might also go over the head of the average six-year-old.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom Line<\/strong>: Lovely illustrations, Zen-like text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A Cup of Quiet features an imaginative grandma and a little girl learning to listen.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

*A Cup of Quiet <\/em>by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson. Bloomsbury, 2025, 32 pages.<\/h3>\n\n\n
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Reading Level<\/strong>: Picture Book, ages 0-4<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recommended for<\/strong>: ages 3-7<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou ever hear of summer camp?\u201d For this little girl, summer camp is two whole weeks with Grandma every June. There\u2019s a part of Grandma that never grew up; she \u201cloves make-believe as much as me.\u201d One day Grandpa is making a lot of noise putting up a bookshelf and the two escape to the backyard. Grandma just wants to enjoy the quiet for a while, but when her granddaughter gets restless she has an idea. Handing over a small imaginary cup she instructs, \u201cWalk around the garden and fill this up with any sounds you hear.\u201d Some sounds are very quiet, but by listening close the girl can hear bees buzzing, a lizard skittering, wind whistling through branches, a hummingbird whirring.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The imaginary cup gets bigger and bigger, and when a pop-up thunderstorm bursts overhead, it\u2019s huge. Big enough for both of them to take a sip. Nature is its own kind of noisy, but \u201cNature\u2019s noise is peaceful.\u201d Affection has its own silent noises, too: \u201cYou ever hear of perfect?\u201d Swirly, fanciful illustrations communicate the quiet joy and love between these two, and the pleasures of just listening.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bottom Line<\/strong>: A warm, affectionate portrait for a grandparent relationship and the value of slowing down to listen.   <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also at Redeemed Reader:<\/h3>\n\n\n\n