22 November 2020 FEEL THE FOG by April Pulley Sayre, Simon & Schuster/Beach Lane, September 2020, 40p., ISBN: 978-1-5344-3760-9

“It was late spring; the air was warm; the fog kept low and made the city beyond look even more dreamlike than it might have looked on a clearer night.”

--from Winter’s Tale by Mark Helprin (1983)

“Like a ship at sea, I’m just lost in a fog

My mind is hazy, my thoughts are blue

Guess I’ll always be kinda

Lost in a fog without you”

-- Ella Fitzgerald (1957)

“Fog rolls in,

damp and pale.

A cloud, ground level,

hugs stone

and snail.

It swallows the distant.

Details dim.

Colors gray.

Lights glow. Barely show.

Squint to find the way.”

Among the dozens of books that April Pulley Sayre has so far created, there is an awesome subgrouping of picture books with poetic texts and photographs relating to seasons and weather. Engaging earth science for little kids. Topics include spring plant growth and flowers blooming; autumn and leaves turning colors; rain; and snow. And now fog.

There have been many times, living here in San Francisco, when I have rooted for the fog to take a hike, maybe get lost in the Dakotas for a fortnight or two. Nevertheless, it’s hard to deny the magic and romance of the fog rolling in, or the beauty of diffuse colored lights during a foggy San Francisco night. 

FEEL THE FOG has immediately become my favorite of Sayre’s seasonal and weather books.The poetic text is playful and rhythmic; the photos are drop-dead gorgeous. There is a wealth of meteorological and earth science information packed into the two-page afterword,  entitled “Fog: The Clouds that Come to Visit.”

Track down a copy of the classic Carl Sandburg Fog poem, and pick up a copy of FEEL THE FOG. For preschoolers heading out into the playyard to experience the fog together or middle graders attempting some fog-filled creative writing, this gem will captivate and inspire a wide range of young people.

Richie Partington, MLIS

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