Beneath by authorand illustrator

Did you ever have one of thosedays when you just wanted to stay in bed with the covers pulled over your head?Today is one of those days for Finn who “doesn’t want to talk about it!”

Even when Grandpa coaxes Finninto taking a walk in the forest, the quilt goes too. That’s okay with Grandpa.“I’ll remember to think of what’s beneath,” he promises. Over the course of thewalk, Grandpa gently draws Finn’s attention to what’s beneath in nature—theroots of massive trees, the teeming aquatic life under the quiet lake waters,the delicate eggs snug beneath a nesting bird—to name a few. Eventually, Finn’scuriosity leads to a question about whether or not their observations apply to people.  Finn learns that beneath appearances areexperiences, beneath differences are similarities… and best of all… empathy andunderstanding.

Doerrfeld’s approach to thisdelicate subject matter is simple, honest, and straight forward honoring thechild’s feelings without becoming preachy.

The lovely artwork provides lotsof visual clues for young readers to find and decode. The images not onlyfurnish insight into what’s beneath in nature, but also offer hints to what isgoing on with the assortment of hikers encountered later in the story.

Pairing the child’s emotionalplace with the hidden depths of the natural world discovered on the forest walkcreates ample opportunities for a conversation about hidden feelings that canoften be hard to identify or bring into the open. That conversation is further enhancedby the addition of a broad variety of individuals who may require a second lookto learn more about them—a subtle reminder to look past first impressions.

BENEATH offers a wonderful meansto introduce a discussion about feelings and experiences and I can imagine somethoughtful SEL lessons predicated on this nature-as-a-metaphor theme.

Recommended for home and schoollibraries.