IN-BETWEEN THINGS

What’s between this and that? In that spot between here and there? Young readers locate the answer in this playful picture book that calls attention to the in-between things.

The first double-page spread offers both a definition (“An in-between thing is a thing in the middle”) and a cheery illustration of a cozy, somewhat jumbled living room occupied by a corpulent charcoal cat and a long-faced hound dog. Identifying the spatial relationships within this eclectic interior world grows increasingly entertaining as the “in-between” starts cropping up all over. Aha! A round picture frame between two rectangular ones! A sock between the couch cushions! A glance exchanged between the cat and dog (both awkwardly atop furniture that keeps something between them and the floor)! Frolicsome rhyming verse accompanies these two pets during the course of their rambles around the house and outside, marking the in-between things along the way. Their sibling relationship (alternating between closeness and estrangement) and individual antics keep the giggles coming. Abundant lemony yellows and springtime greens imbue Tey’s soft mixed-media illustrations with a sunny brightness that lifts readers as they search for in-betweens at each page turn.

An entertaining, original search-and-find for young cartographers mapping out their worlds, learning new ways to look and make visual sense of the people, places, and things they encounter.