There Was a Shadow

There Was a Shadow is a picture book by Bruce Handy, illustrated by Lisk Feng, that asks young readers to look closely at light and shadow. It follows the sun on its daily path across the sky and the shadows that move and dance with its light. Some are cast by the sun, and others by feelings, thoughts and memories.

The story follows a girl from dawn through the day and into the night. She and her friends play with their shadows, rest in the shade of a big tree and head home under the violet glow of twilight.

Handy's lyrical text encourages readers to look up and down and inward and outward. They notice where the sun sits and how that makes shadows long or short, and they see how light and shadow can both reveal and hide things, in the world and in ourselves. Feng's art is dramatic and sensitive, with images full of overflowing light.