Remember

Starred review from January 23, 2023
In an expansive poem turned picture book written by former U.S. poet laureate Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation, and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Goade, a member of the Tlingit Nation, the creators explore people’s links to one another and to nature. Imperative lines bid readers to remember their bond with the cosmos (“the sky that you were born under”), their birth and parents (“how your mother/ struggled to give you form and breath”), the earth (“whose skin you are”), and its fauna and flora (“alive poems”). Created in watercolor, gouache, and colored pencil, Goade’s lushly hued, multilayered images combine intricate patterns, form-line designs, and realistic horizons in their portrayals of humans and the natural world interacting. On one rust-hued spread, a child touches the earth on the verso, an act that emanates visually into the ground; on the recto, a handprint’s image is delicately layered with a paw print, fungi and mycelium, shells and fish skeletons, birds in flight, and much, much more. Evoking the cyclical feeling of a slow breath in and out, it’s a smartly constructed, reflective picture book based in connection and noticing: “Remember all is in motion,/ is growing, is you.” Creators’ notes conclude. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. Illustrator’s agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Productions.