The Blanket Where Violet Sits by Allan Wolf, Lauren Tobia
Published by Candlewick Press on August 30, 2022
ISBN: 076369665X
Pages: 32
Genres: Fiction in Verse/Poetry, Realistic Fiction
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

A young family brings a picnic to a city park at dusk, in anticipation of viewing the night sky. The simple rhyming text follows the cadence of “The House That Jack Built”: “This is the blanket where Violet sits, eating a sandwich, an apple, and chips.” Violet is a young girl with light skin with a light-skinned dad and dark-skinned mom. This loving group is secure in what seems to be a regular, but still special, event as they set up their telescope and ready themselves for the dramatic spectacle of the clear and starry night.

The scope of the text expands page by page; the focus of the inviting illustrations zooms in on the family and then out again, wider and wider, until we can see the “known universe, past comprehension”. Children will enjoy the connections between the illustrations containing Violet and her toy spaceship to those of Violet imagining herself in space, traveling within the rocket ship. One nitpicky comment: the family members wear headlamps while they stargaze, and unless the light in the lamps is red (and it doesn’t appear so), the lamps will make it harder to see the stars.

This would make a great library read-aloud for a young audience or a lovely bedtime story for one lucky child.

Reviewed by Deanna Contrino, Young School Library, Saco