Three Picture Books to Make You Think: Echo, Home, and A Cup of Quiet

In Echo, a spoiled little boy learns that real friendship doesn’t mean total agreement.

*Echo by Adam Rex. Dial, 2025, 46 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 0-4

Recommended for: ages 2-6

“Junior Junior was born in a big house on the side of a mountain . . . and the echo was born soon after.” The echo come from the other side of the canyon, and it repeats everything Junior says. At first it repeats first words like “MINE!”, which aren’t conducive to friendship. But when it agrees that “Junior Junior is the greatest in the world,” what better friend could there be? Still, life is a bit lonely until another child moves in nearby. She’s a girl, and she sometimes (gasp!) disagrees. How can they be friends?

By the time Junior meets his echo, young readers will catch on that real friends will sometimes have their own ideas. They may even sometimes be right while we’re wrong! As the friendship progresses, we could even learn from each other. This simple lesson is pictured in a way that lets them draw their own conclusions, and the best conclusion is, I’m not Number One. And that’s okay.

Bottom Line: A friendly, humorous look at taming a rampant ego.

Home features big thoughts that may eventually get too big.

Home by Matt de la Pena, illustrated by Loren Long. G.P Putnam’s Sons (PRH), 2025, 40 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 4-8

Recommended for: ages 2-6

“Home” can be a lot of things, like a “tired lullaby and a late-night traffic that mumbles in through a crack in your curtains.” It can be your grandpa’s houseboat or your city apartment surrounded by noise or even the rumble of your dad’s eighteen-wheeler. Home can also be lost in a flood, or a fire, or a job loss that forces a move. “A day may come when it’s hard to find your footing, when each gust of wind threatens to sweep you up and carry you away.” But the family will regroup and neighbors will help make a new home.

The pictures are lovely, painted in a folksy style reminiscent of Thomas Hart Benton, with gaudy sunsets, sparkly beaches and wide vistas. The book is worth perusing just for that, but the text gets confusing at “Home is not the walls we build up around our orderly little lives but the wild, wild world outside.” I thought Home was the space we all carve out from the world, but from that point the perspective broadens until “It’s the thump, thump, thump of the earth’s sentimental song inviting you into the harmony of things.” So . . . “home” is everything? If it’s too abstract for me, it might also go over the head of the average six-year-old.

Bottom Line: Lovely illustrations, Zen-like text.

A Cup of Quiet features an imaginative grandma and a little girl learning to listen.

*A Cup of Quiet by Nikki Grimes, illustrated by Cathy Ann Johnson. Bloomsbury, 2025, 32 pages.

Reading Level: Picture Book, ages 0-4

Recommended for: ages 3-7

“You ever hear of summer camp?” For this little girl, summer camp is two whole weeks with Grandma every June. There’s a part of Grandma that never grew up; she “loves make-believe as much as me.” One day Grandpa is making a lot of noise putting up a bookshelf and the two escape to the backyard. Grandma just wants to enjoy the quiet for a while, but when her granddaughter gets restless she has an idea. Handing over a small imaginary cup she instructs, “Walk around the garden and fill this up with any sounds you hear.” Some sounds are very quiet, but by listening close the girl can hear bees buzzing, a lizard skittering, wind whistling through branches, a hummingbird whirring.

The imaginary cup gets bigger and bigger, and when a pop-up thunderstorm bursts overhead, it’s huge. Big enough for both of them to take a sip. Nature is its own kind of noisy, but “Nature’s noise is peaceful.” Affection has its own silent noises, too: “You ever hear of perfect?” Swirly, fanciful illustrations communicate the quiet joy and love between these two, and the pleasures of just listening.

Bottom Line: A warm, affectionate portrait for a grandparent relationship and the value of slowing down to listen.   

Also at Redeemed Reader:

• Reviews: Picture books by Matt de la Pena include Last Stop on Market Street (starred review), Love, and Milo Imagines the World.
• Reviews: Highly recommended picture books by Nikki Grimes are The Watcher, When Daddy Prays (both starred reviews), and A Walk in the Woods, with Jerry Pinkney.
• Reviews: By Adam Rex: School’s First Day at School and (as illustrator) The Dirty Cowboy, a starred review.

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Order Echo from Amazon.

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