There Is a Tribe of Kids

When a young boy embarks on a journey alone . . .
he trails a colony of penguins,
undulates in a smack of jellyfish,
clasps hands with a constellation of stars,
naps for a night in a bed of clams,
and follows a trail of shells,
home to his tribe of friends.

If Lane Smith's Caldecott Honor Book "Grandpa Green" was an homage to aging and the end of life, "There Is a Tribe of Kids" is a meditation on childhood and life's beginning. Smith's vibrant sponge-paint illustrations and use of unusual collective nouns such as "smack" and "unkindness" bring the book to life. Whimsical, expressive, and perfectly paced, this story plays with language as much as it embodies imagination.