It is early evening when a young boy takes his dog for a walk. On the way, they look in at all the windows:
“Some windows will have dinner, or TV.
Others are empty and leave you to fill them up with stories.”
Looking through windows at night is a common theme for painters. There is a fascination with imagining other lives from the little you can see.
Night Windows by Edward Hopper, 1928
The best part of the book is when the boy and dog arrive back home, to find that inside his own window, “Someone you love is waving at you, and you can’t wait to go in.”
Illustrations by E.B. Goodale convey the magic of that in-between time when the day is over, but it’s not quite dark.
Evaluation: This book for the very young shows there are all kinds of different people living different kinds of lives. But of course, there’s no place like home.
Published by Candlewick Press, 2017
That is a curious concept, to think of others’s lives through their windows. I love it. It reminds me of the word ‘sonder’. 🙂
Exactly! Cleverly noted!
My mom loves to look through windows and imagine what’s going on inside houses so this makes me think of her. lol
Dinner time is definitely the best for being a peeping Tom (without evil intent of course) — the lights have been turned on, but often the shades are still up and the drapes still open. I like the Hopper painting you added. I think we need an adult version of this book — a clean-cut one though.
best… mae at maefood.blogspot.com
Thank you for sending this book to Gage! I love the illustrations and looking through the windows and the message is sweet.
I’ve been thinking about making him start doing his own reviews!