IF I WAS THE SUNSHINE

A metaphor-rich venture that is far preferable to average Runaway Bunny read-alike fare.

Raising the bar for cutesy paeans to snuggly feelings, Fogliano uses surprising connections to telegraph love with frequently unexpected results. She begins, all in lowercase, with a gentle, “if i was the sunshine / and you were the day / i’d call you hello! // and you’d call me stay.” Never approaching syrupy, the comparisons range from the intuitive to the unpredictable. “if i was the silence / and you were a sound / i’d call you missing // and you’d call me found.” Soon it becomes clear that although love is common to each of these pairings, the emotion changes depending on the creature. “if you were a bird / and i was a tree / you’d call me home // and i’d call you free.” Readers are left understanding that what is going on here is far more than simple affection between parent and child. Her choice to eschew the subjunctive mood makes the comparisons seem tantalizingly possible. Jewel-toned images full of light, formed by sumptuous acrylic paints, bring the distant near and the miniscule close. Younger readers will wrap themselves in Long’s art while older kids strive to parse the meaning behind each of these gentle rhymes.

Gentle on ear and eye, a keen display of relationships bound together in love and complexity.