Spring for Sophie - Hardcover

Yael Werber is a Massachusetts native and a 2009 graduate of Boston University where she graduated with honors with a degree in Speech, Language, and Hearing Sciences. A former preschool teacher, Yael currently resides in a cozy red farmhouse in Plainfield, Vermont.

Jen Hill is the illustrator of The Boy with Pink Hair by Perez Hilton, and the author and illustrator of Percy and Tumtum: A Tale of Two Dogs. Jen’s work in children’s interactive media spans almost two decades. Her children’s television credits include Time Warp Trio, Home Movies, and Sesame Street. Jen also led a team of artists to create a symbol language and illustrated content for the Tango, a speech-generating device for nonverbal children. Jen is a graduate from the Rhode Island School of Design, where she studied children’s book illustration with David Macaulay. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

The precisely worded text is carefully crafted to help children slow down the pace and tune in to the natural world with all their senses, not just their sight. Hill’s evocative illustrations, done in gouache with “digital retouching,” invite viewers to linger over each scene. Color is used sparingly until the last few double-page spreads, when spring arrives. A possible read-aloud choice for primary-grade units on the senses, this picture book will resonate with all those who find themselves yearning for spring. — BOOKLIST Author: Booklist online Source: January 27, 2017

In the middle of winter (a snowy, northern, rural winter), Sophie is ready for
spring.  But in the end it’s Sophie herself who decides when spring
has finally arrived: she runs outside and catches raindrops on her tongue. “Now I
know spring is here...Because this is what spring tastes like!” The book progresses
nicely through the change in seasons; double-page spreads of the landscape vary
with pages of more action-filled vignettes. The happy busy-ness of a small child’s
world—making paper snowflakes, reading, fetching the mail, playing with the
family dog—is the secondary story here, recalling the child-centered picture
books of Charlotte Zolotow or Eve Rice. - The Horn Book Author: Horn Book Magazine Source: March/April 2017

"The quiet, almost lyrical exchanges between Sophie and her parents ...  are reinforced by Hill's exquisite gouache paintings of a rural New England landscape. Simply lovely."  Shelf Awaeness Author: Shelf Awareness Source: 3/22/17