Just Because by Mac Barnett
Published by Candlewick Press (MA) on September 10th 2019
ISBN: 0763696803
Pages: 40
Goodreads

Every parent recognizes before-bed delay tactics and Barnett captures them in his picture book in a comic look at one parent’s attempt to counter his child’s curiosity with fanciful answers that she can incorporate into her dreams. The child decides to ask tough scientific questions like “why is the ocean blue” and “what are black holes” just as her father is putting her to bed. He, in turn, answers with inventive and silly answers perfectly illustrated by Isabelle Arsenault in a palette of muted colors of mint green, coral, aqua, gold, and lavender. The best use of this book would be as a bedtime story that lead to the investigation *during the day* of the answers to the child’s very real questions; then children could be in on the joke of the playfulness of the answers.

Reviewed by Jill O’Connor, Merrill Memorial Library, Yarmouth