Where did you go today?
Book Details
Where did you go today?
Jenny Duke. London: Child’s Play, pb. 978 1 7862 8200 2, 2019, £6.99, 32pp.
Picture book, 3-6 years
Where did you go today? Was it the park to swing on the swings? Or did you fly? Perhaps you went on the slide? Or maybe, you skied down a mountainside?
In this very simple picture book, Jenny Duke takes an old idea and gives it a contemporary reality. There will be many young readers for whom that day in the week when daddy comes to the house and takes you out is very much part of life. And then, maybe, Mum will ask later “Where did you go”?
Here, without leaving that municipal park Duke provides ideas to feed the imagination that will create special memories of this time. The text is minimal, placing the reader in the real world but meeting the illustrations to create a step beyond. The soft textures of the artist’s palette and crayon technique draw the reader in emphasising the warmth of the relationship between father and daughter and giving solidity to the landscape of the park and the characters. Here is an everyday situation that is entirely believable. A special book, full of warmth and joy.
Review by FΜΗ