(This is, thus far, my favorite picture book spread of 2017.) Bear also essentially takes away Chickadee’s, Dog’s, and Cat’s contentment by lumbering in and taking what he wants. Squirrel’s happiness is now very much in the past tense, as Bear barges in to take the corncob. “It WAS a perfect day for Squirrel,” we suddenly read, the “was” enlarged and emboldened. It turns out that both grammar and font size are crucial in this book, given the turn the story takes in the form of Bear’s appearance. It “was a perfect day” for each of these animals, we read as we meet each one. A boy named Bert is behind all of this, filling the tub with water for Dog, refilling the bird feeder, and dropping the corncob for Squirrel. We meet Cat, happy in a bed of daffodils Dog, wading in a tub of water Chickadee, eating seed from the bird feeder and Squirrel, despite not being able to get to the birdseed, finding a corncob in the grass.
We eventually see a house in the country.
If you haven’t seen it yet, let me summarize: sunny yellow endpapers and a big, warm sun open the book. (Is it a stretch to say this layer of dark humor gives the book a political relevance? Maybe. And it’s a story that will get child readers thinking about how our perspectives shape what we see and how we define the world - much like last year’s Caldecott Honor book They All Saw a Cat.īut Smith also subverts what could have been a one-note story about how various creatures define happiness into a tale of mischief and the food chain - and how those atop it sometimes determine the rules. It’s a story that, from a pedagogical point of view (I was trained as a school librarian, so I can’t help it), works well to demonstrate point of view. Lane Smith’s A Perfect Day was released early this year (February) and is a book that has made an appearance on multiple Caldecott prediction lists throughout the year.
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