Step Gently Out by Helen Frost, illustrated by Rick Lieder

This picture book celebrates looking closely at the small things in the world around us.  Through a poem that focuses on the insects that you can notice if you slow down and take the time, Frost quietly reminds us all that there is another world beside our own that we often ignore.  Ants are climbing up stems, honeybees buzz past, crickets leap and spiders spin webs.  Children will get to see these insects up close, larger than life in the gorgeous photography that accompanies the poem.  It’s a perfect invitation to take a closer look.

Focusing on the more common insects in our gardens, the poem celebrates the ants, bees and moths that surround us.  Frost speaks about them very poetically, bathed in golden light or shining with stardust. 

Her gentle poem pairs beautifully with the artistic photography that features close ups of the insects in the poem.  The images are stunning and lovely, each focusing closely on an insect.  The morning dew image alone is a breathtaking photograph, but there is one after another that are exceptional.

Combining nature and poetry, this book celebrates both.  It also inspires mindfulness and a slower pace, so that children can make discoveries like this of their own.  Appropriate for ages 4-7.

Reviewed from library copy.