Together with Miguel Tanco’s energetic, loose-lined illustrations and warm lemon-yellow palette, Paola Quintavalle’s sparse text in Making Space leaves copious room for connecting the book’s short vignettes to its evocative title, which asks readers to ponder moments in their lives to which they can intentionally allocate their time and attention.
These moments capture a wide range of tones. There are moments of mischief (keeping a secret); fear (seeing a snake in the wild); sorrow (mourning a dead bird); joy (ice-skating); and more. Readers see children who take chances, lead with curiosity, make and say goodbye to friends, and play. Some vignettes depict trying moments: In one of the early spreads, Quintavalle mentions “things that can go wrong,” while Tanco depicts a child cutting a friend’s hair with scissors. On the next page, the recipient of the haircut glares, with arms crossed, into a mirror at the unexpected, unconventional results. What is the character “making space” for? Is it anger or frustration? Could it be making space for acceptance? Is it all of the above? Quintavalle seamlessly and subtly prompts these questions for readers.
Though some spreads feature indoor settings, Tanco’s sunny tableaux primarily feature small children playing outside and exploring the natural world, without any cell phones or screens in view. He depicts heightened emotions (an angry child stomping off with a soccer ball) and lots of lively joy (children playing on the shore, or looking for clover on a sunny day). The closing spread, in which children camping outdoors welcome the night, makes this a potential bedtime read-aloud, but this is a book to make space for at any time of day.
