Kids love to explore spaces and imagine that the stick that they find outside is a dinosaur bone. The Collectors is an illustrated book that taps into that curious and playful spirit that kids of a certain age have. As with any discovery or adventure, the aspect of doing it, is only part of the story and sometimes the journey is the destination. In The Collectors, we meet Winslow and Rosie, two young girls who have amassed a huge collection of natural wonders but strive for something more. What follows is a trip into the countryside where the girls find some great examples of things that they haven’t seen or otherwise might not be attainable.
The Collectors is a very curious book. It’s loaded with soft details that are incorporated into the background that kids might miss if they go too quickly. There is the small head of a deer, peeking its head out from behind a pine tree. The odd-shaped leaves in their collection or the plants that they came from rear their form early in the book too.
The girls have all sorts of anthropological tools that they gather before they hit the field. A backpack with pencils, paint, a compass, collection jars, and more are just a couple of the things that are needed for their research. Winslow leads the way out and finds a gemstone, specifically a purple amethyst, that the girls don’t have, but this one’s too heavy for them to move.
In the open field, Rosie sees the skull of a Tyrannosaurus Rex, but it’s too big. They see a beautiful rainbow, but it’s too far. A cave surely has some great opportunities to discover things, but a big bear chases them out before they can do too much. It scares the girls so badly that they run all the way back home, just the way that Billy does in The Family Circus with a dotted line following them.
Initially, the girls think that their day wasn’t successful because they didn’t discover something new. That is until they look out of their window and see three baby birds, popping their bodies out of their eggs.
The Collectors has a pleasant, easy-going vibe about it that will speak to most young readers. All but two of the pages use every square inch for the myriad of colors that nature and exploring can provide. When the girls find objects but are unable to bring them back home their exclamations will make for great read-along fun. Too big, and so forth will make kids laugh and provide a couple of sight words that younger readers will be learning.
The majority of the text is on level for most second-grade readers. Some of those ages might benefit from you reading one page and them reading the next one. The lesson is very soft, so soft in fact that you might need to ask young readers what’s special about the baby birds in the first place. It’s those special things that are around us all of the time that we might not notice.
The Collectors probably won’t be the most checked-out book in the library. It’s not that flashy, funny, bright book that will clamor for attention. This is more of an observational, armchair adventure/travel illustrated book at first. It’s also the kind of illustrated book that gets better the more times that you read it. You or those young readers who are hearing you read it will actually see the details, echo the attributes of the things that they find, and engage with the book more.
The Collectors is by Alice Feagan and available on Kids Can Press.
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