Good Morning, Morning!

Toddler-Gr 1–A striped pajama-clad toddler (no gender indicated) experiences a summer morning using all the senses. The child awakens in bed with a gray cat who follows all the way to the front door where they step outside in bare feet on the cool, dewy ground and listen as birds squeak and squawk and watch squirrels race and chase amongst a forest of trees. Myers uses sensory-rich language in one or two sentences on a spread, while Mann uses pastel illustrations to contrast the darkness of the house and the gray sky before sunrise when the colors lighten and nature’s landscape is in brighter, illuminating view. Some pages are intentionally void of text, allowing readers to imagine themselves in the beauty of the wild. The narrator’s parents (with peachy skin and black hair) and baby sibling appear on their front porch on the final page, reminding readers that the child has had time alone to soak it all in before “my day can start.”