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I Am Smoke

A New York Public Library 2021 Best Book for Kids

One of the 150 Most Anticipated Fall 2021 Books selected by Kirkus Reviews

An American Library Association Notable Children’s Book 2022

2022 Notable Social Studies Trade Book for Young People

2022 Bank Street Best Children’s Books, Ecology

2022 Blueberry Honor Award

“I lack a mouth, but I can speak.... I lack hands, but I can push out unwanted guests.... I’m gentler than a feather, but I can cause harm....”

By turns playful, challenging, and devious, smoke boasts of the ways it has helped human civilization advance: coaxing seeds to sprout; driving out termites and rodents; sending signals over long distances; preserving and flavoring foods; soothing bees; mixing med- icines; aiding religious ceremonies. But smoke tells us that it can also cause harm and will never be tamed. Smoke has been borne aloft from flames, and its elements returned to earth, since before recorded time; its cycles never end.

Henry Herz’s spare, riddling narrative finds its ideal complement in Mercè López’s illustrations, which she created by holding art paper over smudgy burning candles to capture swirls of smoke. She then extended and deepened these textures with watercolors and finished in Photoshop, and the results are mesmerizing.

Backmatter about the uses of smoke through history enhances the book for STEM learning.
Henry Herz (San Diego, CA) authored ten picture books. His children's short stories have been published in Highlights for Children, Ladybug Magazine, and in anthologies for Albert Whitman & Co. and Blackstone Publishing. Henry also writes adult science fiction and fantasy short stories. He holds a BS in Engineering from Cornell, an MS in Engineering from George Washington University, and an MA in Political Science from Georgetown.

Merce López (Barcelona, Spain) graduated from Llotja Art School in Barcelona and has illustrated for design, theater, and film as well as twenty children’s books for Spanish and international book publishers. Her 2019 title Lion of the Sky: Haiku for All Seasons by Laura Purdie Salas received multiple starred reviews and was named a Center for Children’s Books Gryphon Honor Book, an NCTE Notable Poetry Book, a Kirkus Best Picture Book, and a Parents Magazine Best Kids’ Book, among other accolades.
“Lustrous illustrations and meditative text. Exquisitely beautiful. Smoke dissipates quickly, but this poetic text will linger.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“A Best Nonfiction Picture Book of 2021.” — Elizabeth Bird, Fuse 8 Productions, SLJ

“One of the most astonishingly unconventional children’s books of 2021. Here’s to children’s books that expand our assumptions of what a children’s book can be.” — Travis Jonker, 100 Scope Notes, SLJ

“A superior book everyone should buy.” — Puget Sound Council for Review (starred)

“Wowww!”―– Raina Telgemeier, #1 NY Times, #1 USA Today, #1 Publishers Weekly bestselling author/illustrator

“Herz presents a provocative and unique look at the lifecycle and benefits of smoke throughout the millennia. Lopez’s multimedia artwork further illuminates the ethereal nature of smoke as it drifts and dances across the page.”- John Rocco, NY Times Bestselling author and Caldecott Honoree

"A fascinating, refreshing, and beautifully atmospheric take on something often taken for granted. I’ll never look at smoke the same way again!"- Matthew Cordell, Caldecott Medalist author/illustrator

“I Am Smoke is an absolutely beautiful book, where smoke is both poetry and science. Readers will rest, float, and dance along with smoke’s quiet power across time and traditions. I have lingered over its pages more than once, and I’m sure young readers will, too.”- NY Times Bestselling author Doreen Cronin