Your Forest

Starred review from December 15, 2024
Klassen's inimitable blend of cozy and curious is on flagrant display in this tale of personalized forest management. "This is your sun. It is coming up for you." Klassen allows the youngest of readers to put together a beguiling woodland scene. Each object in the forest is bedecked with the deadpan eyes the artist is known for. Like other titles in the series, this one presents typical items (trees, rocks, a stream), but it distinguishes itself by including a solitary forest ghost who "is nice. He only comes out at night." It's a tiny yet whimsical detail that imbues the tale with an enchanting sense of unpredictability. When day shifts to night, readers are assured that "this is your forest. Now it is done." The sun sinks, and they're treated to a surreal scene as all the items appear to doze off: "Now everyone is closing their eyes." Happily, the ghost has a brief solo moment on the very edge of the forest on the final page. Readers will experience both the comfort of putting a community of anthropomorphized objects to sleep and the power of creating it in the first place. Pure unmitigated sleepy-time pleasure.(Board book. 2-4)

COPYRIGHT(2024) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from November 4, 2024
In this playful board book, publishing alongside two others in the Your Places series, Caldecott Medalist Klassen positions familiar elements of a forest landscape against a blank white backdrop, offering each piece to the reader like a gift. The components sport the creator’s characteristic illustrated eyes, and on the first page, a yellow half-circle peeks over the horizon: “This is your sun. It is coming up for you.” Four pine trees look out from another spread: “These are your trees. They can go over by the sun.” A page turn moves them all to the verso, while a small dwelling appears on the recto: “This is your cabin. It can go in the trees.” More elements materialize—rocks (“Not too many though”), a ghost (“He only comes out at night”), and others—until the scene, in the manner of a felt board tableau, is complete: “This is your forest. Now it is done.” As the sun goes down and the objects close their eyes, readers are invited to “sleep too and think about what you will do there tomorrow.” Lulling rhythms, interactive language, and repeating words soothe and amuse, giving readers a place to envision themselves and return to whenever they like. Publishing simultaneously: Your Farm and Your Island. Ages 2–5. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

January 1, 2025
"This is your sun. It is coming up for you." Thus begins each of three original board books, accompanied by an image of the sun peeking up over an implied horizon line. Subsequent spreads introduce, one by one, other characteristic features you'd find on a Farm (barn, horse), in a Forest (cabin, stream), or on an Island (palm tree, boat) and add them to the scenes. "These are your plants. They can go on the ground." The basic-shaped objects accumulate on mainly white backgrounds; once the settings are fully created, the day concludes, and each book ends with the line: "Now you can sleep too and think about what you will do there tomorrow." A simple premise, but with subtle depth cleverly provided by Klassen. His minimalist style is on full display, from the brief, straightforward texts ("Here is your truck. It is a good truck. It can go in the barn too") to the sparsely populated pages. Of course, Klassen also infuses life and character into each object in the ink and graphite illustrations by giving them expressive eyes, which close at night when the farm, forest, and island go to sleep. Additional imaginative elements include a ghost in Forest and a magical fire that never goes out in Island. The whole process mimics and encourages a toddler's drawing activity, adding things to negative space to create art that tells a child-friendly story. In short, Klassen has crafted three unassuming master classes in picture-book making for the youngest listeners/viewers.

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)