DAWN, by Marc Martin, Candlewick Studio, July 29, 2025, Hardcover, $18.99 (ages 4-8)
Celebrate the natural world through the lens of a sunrise in Dawn, a picture book by Marc Martin.
As the sun slowly rises, many things happen in a small window of time. The world comes alive with the actions of animals, plants, clouds, and sky. A deer drinks, an owl wakes, a dandelion shimmers in the light. A ladybug climbs, a fish jumps, birds call in a chorus. Geese fly away in formation. A flower blooms. Beautifully illustrated with glowing imagery and written with a charming simplicity holding appeal for new readers, Marc Martin’s ode to the slow-blooming beauty of a sunrise and the life that unfolds in its radiance narrows the lens to show the wonder of time passing. —Synopsis provided by Candlewick Studio
Dawn is deceptively simple. At first glance, it’s a book full of vocabulary words and pictures. But if you take the time to slowly move through the pages, you discover a beautiful narrative.
My favorite spreads are those with four panels like “fly — fish — flight — follow” where you first see a fly on a leaf, then a fish below, the fly taking flight and finally the fish emerging to catch it. It’s a beautiful piece of storytelling where the words and images are perfectly in sync.
Dawn is an ode to nature as the world wakes from nightly slumber. It’s a book that especially younger readers will love moving through with their caretakers. It’s lovely.
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