Sidewalk Chalk

Toddler-PreS–A child dumps out a bucket of colorful sidewalk chalk: “Plink. Plunk.” The neighborhood kids all “Plan. Plot.” A shy child watches from the edges : “Brave. Bold. Try! Sigh.” Rain comes: “Drip. Drop. Plip. Plop,” and washes away all the drawings. The girl wakes up early and rushes to draw some art of her own, and the other children come to help: “Redo. Refresh. Rethink. Retry.” Readers will join in vicariously as all the children welcome a new child to the neighborhood. A winsome, colorful picture book with sparse text that mostly describes sounds and actions; this will be embraced by those just learning to read. The illustrations show a lot of chalk art that could have been drawn by children against feathery backdrops, and there is something new to notice with each rereading: a shadow here, a splash of color in the rain there. The caveat here is that readers will have to truly peer at the pages; it’s hard to see the main character on many pages, possibly emphasizing how sidelined that child feels. The children are a diverse group, but the main characters are white. asy, colorful picture book will entice beginning readers into its pages.