Look by Gabi Snyder, illustrated by Samantha Cotterill

Look

By Gabi Snyder, ill. Samantha Cotterill

Texas 2x2 Award

Ages 4+, grades PK+

In Look, a parent and child meander through an autumn day, from breakfast to a market trip, a walk through town and back home. As they go, the child and reader are encouraged to “look.” to tune into their surroundings by sight and find a sense of mindfulness by identifying patterns.

Justification

This book’s layered illustrations drew me in, along with its themes of mindfulness. I am often turned off by the simplicity of some concept books, perhaps to the deficit of my preschooler. While Look provides persistent guidance and practice in pattern recognition, it also offers so much more with text in verse, an engaging visual narrative, and mindfulness practices made approachable for even the youngest audience.

Content

Gabi Snyder’s text is sweet and lyrical. The first page sets the tone for the duality of this book, introducing the idea of pattern recognition, along with the idea that the world can feel big and overwhelming to the intended audience of the book– preschoolers through early elementary readers. She begins: “We are in this VAST world. / And the world is all around– / filled with colors and shapes and sizes./ It can be a lot to take in.” With a down-to-earth charm, Snyder’s text guides readers to slow down and pay attention to their surroundings, finding patterns in unexpected places. She also gently acknowledges how the big world can be confusing and feel like too much, and uses pattern recognition as a grounding tool to turn to in those times.

Illustrations

While Snyder’s text provides the concepts, Samantha Cotterill’s stratified illustrations offer the narrative of parent and child as they move through their day and run errands, find patterns, and appreciate their surroundings. There is so much to find in her busy, vibrant scenes that something new can be found on every read through– I can vouch for this as it became my two-year-old’s favorite for a solid two weeks. Cotterill’s works showcases not only a variety of environmental patterns, but also scenes of shared joy and warmth between the two main characters, culminating in a final nighttime vignette accompanying the comforting closing text, “And the words / I love you. / I love you. / I love you – / a pattern of love, / consistent and sure.”

Snyder, G. (2024). Look, (S. Cotterill, Illus.). Simon & Schuster.