Shadows and Reflections: An Imaginative Wordless Picture Book About Everyday Seeing for Kids

by Tana Hoban

"This imaginative, wordless book of color photographs is a visual treat, offering witty and subtle sets of images for enriching the eyes of children and adults....[A] satisfying, intriguing book."--School Library Journal.

Shadows and reflections are all around us -- under our feet, over our heads, directly in front of us. But only Tana Hoban can make us look at -- and see -- what is right before our eyes. She makes us look with our minds and hearts and imaginations -- and our surroundings are forever changed.

Genres: Picture Books, Science, Storytime, Childrens

32 pages, Hardcover

First published March 1, 1990

Reviews

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tana Hoban does a beautiful job capturing city views that will help children understand the concepts in her book Shadows and Reflections. The front cover displays a shadow of a fence and a child, demonstrating how the light has to come from behind the object to cast a shadow. Inside the book, the author shows how reflections can be made in many different ways and how they can be distorted or look like the real object. I think this would be a great book to use when teaching about shadows in elementary school or in a photography class.

[James Vickery · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book would be great to share with first graders on the concepts of a shadows. This book discusses why shadows exist while also explaining that shadows are everywhere. The story can motivate students to start to looking for shadows in places that they would never think to look.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tana Hoban is great, if outdated.

[Debra]

P - 5 and Up

Wordless book of Photographs of Shadows and Reflections

[Amy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading Rainbow: My Shadow

Simple photographs

[Savannah · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked this one a lot because I could ask my 5 yr old if it was a reflection or shadow and of what.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a wordless book that my 4 year old class enjoyed. We were talking about shadows, and it was fun for them to name whether the picture was a shadow or a reflection.

[Meredith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some lovely photographs, but too high-level conceptual for my preschoolers.

[Susan · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is something about this book that really worked for me and that I found quite satisfying.

I enjoyed the variety of pictures included and the thoughts they provoke.

I imagine this book could be used with children not just for the art's sake of it but also for the science value of it. And, of course it would just be fun to 'read' and discuss in and of itself.

Hoban is a gifted artist with a good eye for subject matter. I will look up more of her work.

[Jessie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is definitely more in my head as a resource than as something to be read straight through. No words and no story across the photographs, either, but a lot of different plays on shadows and reflections, mainly in a city.

[Jo Oehrlein · Rating 3 out of 5]

A book of photographs in the city of (mainly) reflections and also some shadows.
The photographs don't have an obvious story.

[Therese Thompson · Rating 2 out of 5]

Confusing and bewildering is probably a better title for this book about shadows.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fairly artsy- shows pictures of shadows and reflections in the real world.

[☼Bookish in Virginia☼ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Time Machine
2.0 out of 5 stars We Don't Get What All the Hoop-la is About, May 27, 2005

If Children had coffee tables, Tana Hoban's books would probably be on them. That said, my children and I don't get what all the hoop-la is about. Sure, the pictures have that artistic 'grittiness' that one often sees in photos hung in galleries, but really, how many young children find that style appealing!?!

In particular, in this book (as compared to Toban's "Dig-Drill, Dump-Fill") the photographs don't even seem that inspired. The cat lying on the car hood is just that; a tabby on car's hood.

Two stars- Some pictures are interesting but definitely take a look at it in the Library before purchasing.