A Walk in the Woods

I love this book for so many reasons.

First, there is the beauty of the collaboration of two giants in the children’s book world whom I admire so much, Nikki Grimes and Brian Pinkney, about the loss of a father. Then there is Nikki Grimes’s poetic language that took me on a journey of joy and hope alongside grief and sadness. And then there is the irony in Brian Pinkney finishing the artwork of his father after his unexpected death as he grieved for him.

A soft and gentle book, beautifully illustrated by a father and son.

This book is a quiet and moving book about the loss of a father, which is also a lovely ode to nature.

It feels even more special knowing that Brian Pinkney finished the final art of this book after his father, Jerry, passed away, mirroring the boy in the story whose father leaves behind a final page in his sketchbook for him to finish. 

I love beautiful picture books, and everything about this one is beautiful: the deep feelings of love, loss, and longing of a son for his father, the healing aspect of the natural world, the carefully-crafted poetic words that express hope through all of that longing, and the dynamic line art that illustrations depict the young main character, forest creatures, and other living things.

A collaboration between poet Nikki Grimes and the late author-illustrator Jerry Pinkney, this book only fully came together after Jerry Pinkney’s unexpected death–and fittingly completed with his son Brian Pinkney’s all-encompassing, abstract swirls that bathe the book… show more.