What Will These Hands Make?

Starred review from December 2, 2019
This celebration of citizenry and craft is a poignant reminder of the objects and places that makers weave. As a family prepares for a loved one’s birthday party, the titular question becomes a refrain, exemplified by a litany of handmade items, listed and shown, that a family encounters nearby (“a teacup for a child/ a bowl round and shiny”) and within their neighborhood streets (“a sidewalk safe/ a haven for others”). Signature cut-paper scenes by McClure (The Great Chicken Escape) are dynamic—set upon a background evocative of kraft paper, minimal spot color (red, white, brown, yellow) guides the eye through the busy pages, highlighting the family’s house, a person’s white hair, a hand-sewn pillow, and other special items. Spreads spotlight McClure’s painstaking detail and expand the family’s world into a thrumming community full of artisans indoors and out: gardeners, bakers, and performers alike. The book’s appeal spans a wide range: younger readers will enjoy the seek-and-find aspect, and older readers may find inspiration in its vision of daily life and communal innovation. An elegant reflection on the provenance of everyday items. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

Starred review from December 1, 2019
A grandmother holds a baby's hand and wonders, "What will these hands make?" Myriad possibilities follow. What if those little hands made "a fiddle to play quick / a stack of wood for the night / a play to cheer / a lantern to guide the way back home?" Or how about "a bridge to cross a river / a boat to sail the sea / a house for swallows / a home for families?" These projects appear embedded within luxuriantly detailed scenes, made with McClure's own steady hand and an X-Acto knife. Capitalized headers boldly ask "WILL THESE HANDS MAKE," with possibilities unfurling in lyrical, lucid verse beneath. Awe-inspiring double-page spreads show a busy town from multiple, miraculous perspectives. Putty-colored paper serves as a soothing, neutral background for McClure's inky-black illustrations, and it also allows all people to share the same skin tone. Selective pops of color (icy blue, buttercream yellow, brick red, cotton white) highlight fabric, flowers, cake, a mast. The matte pigments glow on the taupe paper, emphasizing just how good, hands-on work provides bright spots in communities. McClure encourages readers to trace their hands on two vacant ovals on the final pages, and it seems she's asking also for a promise to do something with their own hands in the future. A conversational author's note describes how she cuts paper to make artwork. Extraordinary artwork inspires young people to use their hearts and hands. (Picture book. 4-10)

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January 1, 2020

PreS-Gr 1-Themes of community, creativity, and craft are at the heart of this book about a family preparing for a grandmother's birthday celebration. With the repetitive question of "What will these hands make?," a young girl explores all the possibilities of what hands can make. The child repurposes a worn sweater into an imaginative fish-shaped pillow before going out to the larger world, where a variety of handmade items are mentioned, from a knitted hat for baby, a bench, and a cake to things such as sidewalks, bicycles, and bridges. McClure's (How to Be a Cat) signature art made from black paper with an exacto knife on a tan background is sprinkled with images of a variety of people doing hands-on projects. Pages alternate between text and wordless red-and-white spreads that give opportunities for contemplation on all the things in our world that hands can make. The language can be a bit stilted at times, and McClure breaks from her previous pattern at the end to ask questions like "Will these hands make a safe place to be?," "Will these hands make a community?," and "What will your hands make?" VERDICT A good selection to inspire young makers and for fans of McClure's previous works.-Danielle Jones, Multnomah County Library, OR

Copyright 2020 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

December 1, 2019
Preschool-G A title page displaying six different hands shows how clever human fingers can be. The wordless and detailed double-page spread in the middle of the book presents an active community of people in a big city and surrounding countryside. With limited text throughout, the general theme of a birthday party is referenced and mirrored as a family opens presents, eats the cake, watches a puppet show, and sings and dances around a campfire. Images are made from cut black paper with a limited palette of black, beige, and occasional objects highlighted in spots of red, white, or yellow. Careful viewers will be delighted to find scenes revisited in closer detail and from different vantage points. In her author's note, McClure notes the many hands that helped her create this book, both named and unnamed ( cake bakers, musicians, sidewalk makers, builders, cartwheelers; dreamers and makers all ). The clever bookmaking technique, which moves between the busy scene and its individual sections, produces the joy of a shared experience in which all hands combine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2019, American Library Association.)