Children’s picture book about navigating change
This book caught my eye at a local bookshop some time ago and I couldn’t leave without it. The bright green cover and lyrical title piqued my interest and when I flicked through it in-store I knew I had to buy it for my toddler.
“The Bookshop on Lemon Tree Lane” by Mike Lucas and illustrated by Sofya Karmazina is a children’s bookshop about a young child (presumably a boy) who frequently visits a bookshop with his grandfather. Together they enjoy browsing the books, soaking up the atmosphere and patting the bookshop dog. However, the routine is disturbed when the bookshop closes for renovations and the child worries that the bookshop won’t be the same.
This is an absolutely wonderful book that was an instant hit with me and my toddler. The gentle rhyming text is very well done and is both simple yet evocative. This is one of the first books that my toddler was able to start anticipating and reciting the last word in each line, so another winner for speech development. There are also lots of opportunities for sound effects, and we love the “DING!” of the bell and making a water drop sound when there is a drip from the ceiling. I think this book would be especially good for more anxious children who struggle with change and who worry about new and unknown things. The book clearly depicts a child who is worried about what the new bookshop will be like. Plenty of space is allowed for those feelings without any criticism (or really any reassurance aside from Grandpa’s consistent presence and hand-holding), and it is instead the child who realises at the end that the new bookshop is just as good and, in some ways, perhaps even better.
I also wanted to reflect on the artwork which is really beautifully done. Karmazina’s illustrations use a range of mediums which create depth, movement and character. There is a really strong theme of the colour green which links the old and new shops together, hints at the magic the child finds in the books and even (through the child’s clothes) hints at the child’s growing acceptance of the changed bookshop.
A really great discovery and not only a book my toddler and I continue to enjoy, but so relaxing it was the first book she ever fell asleep to while I was reading to her – a miracle in of itself.
