Dawn: Watch the World Awaken

Martin (A Stone Is a Story) employs delicate, luminous watercolor, pencil, and digital panels, captioning them with simple words, to limn quiet moments of drama in the natural world. The sun rises on an opening page, turning a pond’s surroundings rusty gold as a fish jumps: “Dawn.” A page later, a spiderweb gleams with diamond droplets: “dew.” And a spotted fawn at the water’s edge bends down to drink—“deer”—until it perks up its ears at a “sound”—and “spring”s away, leaving only ripples in the water and a sense of “still.” Warm sunlight pervades most scenes (leaves are lit from the back, splashes of water catch the sun’s rays), while tight, often creaturely close-ups give a sense of intimacy. As the sun appears over the trees, a single sunray is seen interacting with water (“glint”), light emerges from behind spruces (“glimmer”), an image of the sky appears in the pond (“reflection”), and, in a mesmerizing panel, the water’s surface holds melting, shifting areas of color (“shimmer”). It’s a contemplative work that captures the power of close observation, showing how individual panels and single, well-chosen words can sum up a place’s feeling. Ages 4–8. Agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Productions. (July)