Children's Fiction Environment
If You Were Here
- Publisher
- Greystone Books Ltd
- Initial publish date
- May 2025
- Category
- Environment, Death & Dying, General
- Recommended Age
- 3 to 7
- Recommended Grade
- p to 2
-
Hardback
- ISBN
- 9781771649926
- Publish Date
- May 2025
- List Price
- $23.95
Classroom Resources
Where to buy it
Description
For kids ages 3-7, this lyrical picture book explores the complex emotions around missing a loved one, with stunning illustrations by Ojibwe artist Maya McKibbin.
I wish I could show you…
this great big meadow,
like a sea of lacy clouds….
In this beautiful ode to nature and mindfulness, a child sets out to explore the environment around their home, using all their senses. Yet, someone important is missing, someone the child wishes could be there on the journey.
Expressive text by Kathy Stinson leaves room for readers’ own interpretations about who the child in the story might be missing, while Indigenous illustrator Maya McKibbin’s gorgeous images capture the lush beauty of the natural world and the tenderness of a child’s emotions.
The perfect book for helping a child navigate loss, or missing someone that can’t be there with them.
About the authors
Kathy Stinson is a familiar name in children’s literature. She wrote the award-winning Red is Best and Big or Little?—two of the first picture books for preschoolers in Canada. Both were a huge success and have since achieved international acclaim. Red is Best 25th Anniversary Edition was released in 2006 a newly illustrated Big or Little? was published in 2009. Kathy’s latest book, The Man with the Violin (2013), was greeted with rave reviews, including starred reviews in Kirkus and uill & uire. Illustrated by Duan Petricic, this beautifully evocative picture book tells the true story of world-renowned violinist, Joshua Bell, who conducted an experiment by anonymously playing his priceless violin in the Washington D.C. subway station. Kathy grew up in Toronto. “My love affair with books began as a child,” she says. “I remember regular visits to the library, getting stacks of books to read.” She still has a notebook of stories that she wrote when she was in grade four. She believes that reading a lot is the key to becoming a good writer. In the early 1970s Kathy attended university while teaching elementary school. In 1981, she took a course called “How to write and get published.” The titles she has published in the years since range from picture books to young adult novels, from historical fiction chapter books to short stories in the horror genre. 2008 sees the publication of her first brand-new picture book in sixteen years! Kathy enjoys visiting schools across Canada, and especially talking with fellow writers. In 1987 she traveled to England as part of an exchange of Canadian and British children’s authors. She has helped students across Canada pursue their own creative projects through the Writers in Electronic Residence program, and in many communities has conducted writing workshops for children and for adults. When she’s not busy writing or reading, Kathy is a self-proclaimed jigsaw puzzle addict. Her children now grown, she lives with her partner, editor Peter Carver, in a hamlet not far from Guelph, Ontario.
Maya McKibbin is a Two-Spirited Ojibwe, Yoeme, and Irish filmmaker, illustrator, and storyteller. Using her education in computer graphics and interactive media, her work is rooted in the natural world and our relations to it.
Other titles by
The Rock and the Butterfly
A Tulip in Winter
A Story About Folk Artist Maud Lewis
The Girl Who Loved Giraffes
And Became the World's First Giraffologist
Lady with the Books, The
A Story Inspired by the Remarkable Work of Jella Lepman
The Dog Who Wanted to Fly
Red is Best
Munsch fall 2017 board book package 1
Annikin package
The Dance of the Violin
