If I Was the Sunshine written by Julie Fogliano and illustrated by Loren Long is a beautiful picture book that links thoughts about the relationship of physical things and events in the natural world to the arc of feelings that they can bring forth. Twenty-two double-page illustrations are rendered in acrylic paint. Each picture is rich in color, proportion, perspective and expansiveness.
The structure of the poetic text is unusual too as verbs are sometimes used as adjectives and other times as adverbs. The poetic lines state if I were one thing and you were another thing then I would call you this and you would call me that. From the text:
“if I was the sunshine
and you were the day
i’d call you hello!
and you’d call me stay.”
In this way the relationships between nature, events and feelings are gracefully made. One of the most delightful poems and accompanying illustrations tells the story of a flower, a nose, a sniff and a rose. An eye-popping gorgeous black and white- tailed sunk is shown cautiously smelling a pink rose. Other relationships play out between winter and spring, mountain and sky, apple and worm and silence and sound.
If I Was the Sunshine written by Julie Fogliano, a 2013 Ezra Keats Award winner and illustrated by Loren Long who also illustrated Of Thee I Sing by President Obama will be enjoyed by children 5-8 years of age (Atheneum Books for Young Readers/Simon ad Schuster, 2019).
The Children’s Bookshelf is a production of WCMU. A link to the podcast and activity questions can be found at Children’s Bookshelf dot org.
Questions and activities for If I Was the Sunshine
There are many wonderful creatures found in the book’s illustrations. Find each animal, study each picture for visual clues and answer the following questions. Use your imagination. There are no wrong answers: What could the cow be thinking about? What could the sleeping bear be dreaming about? What are the squirrels planning to do? Why could the sunk want to smell the rose? What could the moose be listening for?
Soundscapes: Try out the sounds that fill this book: be a rooster crowing a good morning, be the Spring singing its arrival, be a sunk sniffling very carefully, be a woodpecker pecking on a tree, be a wild ocean churning its waves and be a loud clap of thunder. Brothers and sisters can add their voices to this sound track. Have fun!
Which of the poems do you like the best? Why? How does it make you feel? How do the illustrations for this poem play into making it your favorite? If you were to give this poem a title what would it be?
