Welcome to my stop on the Between the Lines blog tour. Today, I am featuring a picture book that I think we can all relate to.
Between the Lines
written and illustrated by Lindsay Ward
Two Lions, 2021, 48 pages
It begins on a busy, diverse city street, when a young boy and his friend begin to notice that the colors and sounds of everyday life are beginning to fade. 
No one else seems to notice the colors fading and the sounds dimming until one night there was a wild, violent storm. The next day, almost all the color is gone and there is a deep rift separating one side of the street from the other, thus separating the boy from his friend.
At first, people question what happened, but soon they just begin to accept it and get one with their now colorless lives. Time goes by - a week, a month, a year. But the young boy can't forget his friend and at night, he dreams of how colorful it used to be on his street - "...rust redbrick roads bathed in ripe, orange mornings. Lemon Popsicle yellow melting, sticky sweet. Freshly cut green against bluebird skies. And a sea of stars sprinkled on velvet purple nights." Then one night, there are no more dreams, the young boy has forgotten the colors.
There is only one thing left for him to do -
Between the Lines is a concept book that can be read in so many different ways for so many different age groups. Whether you see it as a metaphor for COVID-19 or for climate change or even for the divisiveness of the country right now, or if you just see it as a book about bringing people together, one thing stands firm - it just takes one person, even a child, to bring about change and to make a difference.
I wasn't sure about the aging for this book, the idea seemed a little to old for 4-and 5-year-olds to really grasp. So I decided to read it to my young readers (average age 4, and English isn't their first language). I read it once, and then we talked about it, then read it again. They liked it, and it understood it at its most basic level. I think slightly older kids will pick up the nuances more than younger readers and making this a book they can grow with.
As with all of Lindsay Ward's books, the digitally created artwork for this one is wonderful, ranging from bright, springlike pastels to images that resemble white chalk on a blackboard and back to colorful again. The street is full of friendly diverse children and adults, happily involved in different activities that are then captured in all their confusion, isolation, and sadness when their street is divided and color is lost.
Between the Lines is definitely a book to be shared and talked about.
What Others Are Saying About Between the Lines:
"A Vibrant neighborhood loses its color, literally, as the community becomes fractured." - Kirkus Reviews
"The illustrations...bring the atmosphere and ideas of the story to life. The depictions of both isolation and community in a dense urban neighborhood are poignant, especially after a year when COVID-19 forced people worldwide to forgo, and then to reinvent, community togetherness." - Booklist
Meet the Author:
Lindsay Ward is the creator of the Dexter T. Rexter series as well as Rosie: Stronger than Steel; This Book is Gray; Brobarians; Helping Hospital; the Wheels on the Go series; Rosco vs. the Baby; and The importance of Being 3. Her book Please Bring Balloons was also made into a play. Lindsay lives with her family in Peninsula, Ohio. Learn more about her online at
Twitter: @lindsaymward
Instagram: lindsaymward
Check out a storytime for Between the Lines and other books HERE on Lindsay Ward's website:
I am intrigued by this book and plan to check it out. Sounds like it is a book that can help kids and adults think about the bigger picture and our part in it. Thanks for sharing!
ReplyDelete~Jess