This is a really lovely book. It wasn’t really what I was expecting in terms of not having a “story” exactly but just the big words on each page to represent what was happening in the pictures.
However the illustrations are absolutely beautiful and I will definitely be purchasing this book to read with my 2 year old daughter as I think she will love the images of the little girl, the community and the chalk aspect. She’s just gotten into chalk herself so the story is really relevant to what she does in our garden.

Bright and colorful this book is a delight. I love the community aspect that it brings with all the children drawing together. I would like to see more inclusion of kids with disabilities though, just do to the nature of the story I feel like it would have added so much more.

I liked the imagination here with what could be done with the chalk, and the way that the author utilized lots of different words that sound good when read out loud.

Overall: 3.5 ⭐
Plot/Lesson:° 3📍
Smiles: 2 🙂
Illustrations: 5 🖌️
Suggested Ages: 0 - 3 y/o

"Mom's" Review:
The illustrations are definitely the focal point of this beautifully drawn story! I enjoyed the sound effects and single words emphasized in the story - great for vocabulary building with the littlest of littles.

Personally, I'm not quite sure the "story" as laid out in the overview came through as clearly as this talented author/illustrator team intended. It took me a minute to realize the rock was being handed off, that the story's focal point shifted to a new person, or that The Little Girl initiated or organized (the final effort).

Still, it's visually stunning!! 3 and under will probably be more then willing to sit and point out all the lovely details. Think "Good Night Gorilla," but as an idyllic 80's neighborhood with all the kids playing together. Nostalgia and inspiration rolled into one.

A's Review:^
(Coming soon!)

C's Review:*
(Coming soon!)

All opinions are our own.

° - Our Plot/Lesson rating is how well the kiddos picked up on the morals/lessons learned or well received the facts were.
^ - A: "Ready to Read" level 3, voracious reader
* - C: learning her letters, but memorizes stories well!

A short, lovely book full of gorgeous illustrations. The onomatopoeia are very well done. They flow and rhyme without being stilted. There's a nice message as well.

This will do well at the library with the art theme for the summer. We will purchase and use during our sidewalk chalk event. Thank you for the ARC.

What a fun book. The pictures are inviting and super colorful. My students will truly enjoy this picture book and all of the silly descriptive sounds.

Love love love the illustrations of this book! The colors are gorgeous and the cover really catches the eye with the many colors! Super cute and easy to read.

As I was reading this sweet little book, an upbeat beat with percussion was playing on the tv. Interestingly, I read the book to the best of the music. It’s not filled with text, but plenty of fun onomatopoeias and alliterations. The illustrations are colorful and bold and depict children in all types of fun activities. Put this to a fun beat and have the kids play along. They will love it and learn new words.

Awesome book! Right off the bat, I want to note that I think this book would be more meaningful to a "younger" young audience, due to the simple and minimalist writing choices. This book is especially useful introduce little ones to various literary devices, mainly alliteration and rhyming. What's even better is this book encourages kids to come out of their shells and engage in their own communities and with the people around them. I can't stress enough how important it is to get this point across to kids. The author did a great job of conveying this through a fun writing style and design, but the author did a fantastic job of really working together with the illustrator. It was clear that the two complemented each other, and having the visuals with the words be so intertwined was a highly effective tactic. Lastly, the illustrations on their own were stunning! I loved how the illustrator captured the wonder, creativity, and exploration that comes with playing with sidewalk chalk. Bravo!

Sidewalk Chalk is such a fun book to read. The illustration by Lea Marie Ravotti are magnificant.

Sidewalk Chalk takes me back to the days where all the kids in the neighborhood would come and create out drawings. There wasn't a limit to what story we wanted to tell. This book is made me smile with all the onomatopoeias. I had fun making all the sounds. The kids will enjoy them too.

Thank you NetGallery and Gnome Road Publishing for the ARC.

Whether using as a traditional read aloud/read along or as an instructional tool, this adorable book about a beloved activity will find a home with many kids! I love that illustrations include a diverse group of children and add more depth to the simple, yet effective text. Alliteration, rhythm, rhyme, and onomatopoeia work perfectly for kiddos and the goals of their teachers. And if that wasn’t enough, this is the kind of book that can help create discussion with parents.

Love this book and how colorful it was. It’s very fun and straight to the point. Would be a great book to get your child into reading.

This is the perfect summertime book about the joy of chalk drawing on the sidewalk with neighborhood friends. The vivid colors and movement work perfectly with the nearly wordless onomatopoeia text. It reminded me of Mr. Brown Can Moo Can You or another recently published picture book, Chalk the Walk.

This makes a great storytime book for summer reading programs, families, and schools. I highly recommend this book for children and their families, schools, and libraries.

Two stories are told simultaneously in Sidewalk Chalk: in the more surface-level narrative, a group of children use a big bucket of chalk to decorate the street in their neighborhood. When rain begins to fall their creations wash away and they are deterred for the day, only to come back the next day with renewed creative spirit to do it all again. In the more subtle story (which is told via illustration only, and will reward observant readers,) one girl tries to join in on the chalk fun but is intimidated by the large group of kids and has a hard time claiming a piece of chalk before they are all snatched up. By the end of the story she has discovered that she can use a rock to create art on the street just like chalk, and is encouraging the group to welcome a new kid who has just moved into the neighborhood and is feeling similarly shy.

The writing heavily features onomatopoeia and uses single words and phrases rather than full sentences, making this a book that rewards slow reading and observation to take in both the poetic language and also notice the elements of the story that are not being told through words. Speaking of those elements, Ravotti's bright and bold color palette reflects the joy of chalk art, while the digital art medium allows for brushes and lines that imitate the chalk art of children as well as blurring effects when the rain arrives to wash the art away. I do feel that drawing more attention visually to the subtle story would have helped more readers notice and understand what is going on. I wish that the kids who are reluctant to join in were highlighted a little more visually, whether with shading, line wait, or separating them a little bit more from the rest of the kids compositionally.

This is overall a charming picture book which would be great for kid with strong intuitive reading skills, or even to aid in developing those skills. It would be a nice resource for educators looking for a work which requires careful reading and visual analysis. I do think some of the elements of the story could be lost on some readers.

My three-year old daughter and I had tons of fun reading Sidewalk Chalk and found it especially relevant coming up on warmer weather. We even pulled out our chalk following our reading of the book.

She loved all the bright colours, and I loved the simple story, rhyming and easy-words for the opportunity to sound out letters of the one or two words written on the page. Perfect for the very young through to any little kiddos starting to read or learn how to read!

Thanks so much for the arc!

Sidewalk chalk is a sweet and short book with a large variety of vocabulary words. The story is of a girl who wants to join in with a group of children drawing with chalk but is too shy. I thought the story was thoughtful but the transition at the end could have used one more page to reinforce the main character joining the group. The main character goes from being invited and shyly accepting to then telling everyone to accept a new child and leading the group. I think one more page for the transition would help clarify the message of belonging and acceptance to young readers.

The illustration is fantastic and the story uses great vocabulary with an easy to follow story structure.

Jen Fier Jasinski's "Sidewalk Chalk" is a colorful picture book for preschool-aged children. The book uses simple onomatopoeia and action words to complement detailed illustrations of children at play.

Because the book uses very simple, short words, it may be a little hard for children to follow the story without discussion, so this is definitely a book where my five-year-old daughter and I talked about what was happening in each picture as we read. The illustrations are very detailed and beautiful, so it was fun to do. I like books that encourage discussion, but without that, it would have been a very fast read.

It makes for a really fun book to pair with a sidewalk chalk activity, and you can bring up the words used in the book with your child or try to recreate some of the chalk drawings from the book with your child.

Thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced read.

Sidewalk Chalk features simple wording with absolutely beautiful and vibrant illustrations. I'm not the biggest fan of the simple wording sentences as I don't think my 4 year old truly grasped what was happened based off of the words and had to exclusively rely on the pictures as the story advanced. For this story to have the biggest effect, I feel like the reader will really to slowly grow through each page, explain the action/wording, while talking through the scene.

But once again, the illustrations were perfection!

Sidewalk Chalk is a great book for emerging readers and early literacy. Few words, excellent pictures, and a lovely cadence make this book a delight to read. I highly recommend this for PreK-1st grade classrooms.

Thank you to NetGalley for an ARC of this book. Opinions expressed are my own.

This book is SO CUTE!! The illustrations are adorable and colorful and perfectly compliments the rhythmic cadence of the writing. A sweet story, with an even sweeter ending! This is gonna be a fun one to read to kids!