Smoot: A Rebellious Shadow by Michelle Cuevas, illustrated by Sydney Smtih
Smoot: A Rebellious Shadow by Michelle Cuevas and Sydney Smith is a striking picture book - both for the fresh story Cuevas tells and Smith's bold watercolor and pen and ink illustrations. Together, Cuevas and Smith have created a picture book that is a joy to read - over and over - and one that will linger in your thoughts long after you have closed the covers.
Cuevas begins Smoot: A Rebellious Shadow, "If life is a book, then Smoot the Shadow had been reading the same yawn-colored page for seven and a half years. And much like two pages in a book, or two ripples in a brook, Smoot and his boy were inseparable." Evoking a tidy, if dull life, Cuevas's words are rich with imagery. The thick, black likes of Smith's illustrations, especially on the boy, give a heaviness to the page while the white spaces make Smoot and the other shadows in this book pop.

More about Sydney Smith:
I was so taken with Sydney Smith's illustrations that I spent more time poring over his work and process. Smith is the illustrator of the moving, multi-award winning Sidewalk Flowers, a wordless picture book about a child's experience with death by JonArno Lawson. For a look at another side of Smith's style, this clip of him at work is so cool to watch!
Source: Review Copy