THIS IS THE WIND

In a “House That Jack Built” format, a gentle verse takes a mother and father to the hospital for the birth of their child and, in a parallel tale, a mouse in from the wind for the birth of her own babies. As the mouse arranges a tiny bed and dresser into a home for herself, the humans drive the icy road to the hospital. In the end, both mothers sit rocking with their children in the now-calm darkness, telling them of that windy night when they were born. Reichert’s brilliantly colored pastel illustrations convey a sense of movement as the wind blows throughout, curvilinear design unifying the individual vignettes of human and mouse stories, abetted by text placement that loops about the page. Facial expressions and body language speak volumes. While sweet, however, this just misses the tone and sense of complete package found in Tell Me Again About the Night I Was Born by Jamie Lee Curtis, illustrated by Laura Cornell (1995) and On the Night You Were Born by Nancy Tillman (2006). (Picture book. 3-7)