What happens when you combine inspired poetry with the glow of stained glass? New York Times bestselling author Aaron Becker's You Are Light. Twelve circular cut-outs in this elegantly inviting board book reveal translucent shades of golden yellow, tangerine, sea blue, pale green, violet, and more, so that readers begin with a generous spectrum radiating out from the flames of the sun. Page by page, the palette becomes increasingly spare until we view the pale light of the moon.
Accompanying these twelve die-cut "windows" are lyrical lines that begin:
"This is the light
that brings the dawn
to warm the sky
and hug the land."
Within the circle of windows we see first a sun, then warm red flames. The couplets and symbolic watercolor illustrations carry us through nature's fundamentals: sun, flame, rain, grain, leaves, blossoms, and the moon.
As you can tell from the title, though, this book isn't simply about nature as if it were apart from us. After drawing us through these elemental waves, it finally comes to the words:
"This light is you.
And you are light."
Children ages 4 - 8, for whom this book is designed, will be immediately drawn in by its wonder. As with A Stone for Sascha, though, Becker draws upon mystical depths which — like all genuine mysticism — communicate most truly through an encompassing simplicity.
