Look Up

López’s impressionistic paintings emphasize human smallness against nature’s vastness in this ruminative story about a man “always contemplating the things above his head.” Initially, a protagonist, portrayed with brown skin, attempts “to make the others look up to see what he saw.” But their indifference spurs him into doubt, and he joins them in the construction of an enormous scaffolding upon which they appear as small as worker ants before a full moon. One night, the man becomes lost while walking and encounters a spread-filling black hole, as visually striking as the bright moon. When he screams into this abyss, thousands of colorful birds emerge, covering the hilly landscape with a “tornado of feathers” and finally provoking the skyward appreciations the protagonist originally sought from peers. Visually articulating the natural world’s perspective-altering capabilities, scenes are frequently conveyed using wide-angle views or aerial overheads. Against a primarily earth-toned palette, the birds scatter across pages like multicolored confetti in this soaring celebration of the virtues of looking up. An afterword connects the story to Mexico’s Cave of Swallows. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)