A young space traveler discovers Earth of the future and finds an old Viewfinder in a time capsule. The traveler uses the Viewfinder to explore Earth as it was in the past, while exploring how it currently is in the present.

The artwork is absolutely breathtaking as the traveler sees the past in black and white and the present in color. Reading this story makes me want to explore more of Earth while I'm still here to explore it!

Thank you to Penguin Random House Canada and NetGalley for the eARC!

First of all, I want to thank the author and NetGalley for providing me with an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review. Viewfinder by Christine D.U. Chung; Salwa Makoka is coming out on February 13, 2024.

Wow! What an interesting book with no text. The illustrations were breathtaking. This was such a unique book and can show children that you don’t need words in a book to understand. This would be a wonderful book to add to your home or school library. Highly recommend!! #NetGalley

A beautiful story about a young space traveller who stumbles upon Earth in the future.
She finds Earth abandoned by people but still full of amazing artifacts, stories, and pieces of our beautiful Earth.

The story lead to a good conversation with my children about caring for our planet, taking responsibility and how we could do our part to make small changes.

This story was absolutely beautiful and the art is stunning and full of detail and wonder.

Thank you penguin random house Canada and NetGalley for this advance reader copy.

This is a really interesting wordless book, and there's so much context given without needing text. I like how there was so much exploration and travel involved, it wasn't just a go to one place and be done situation.

What a breathtaking book! The illustrations say so much and engage the reader in this picture book with no text. The world that once was, explored through the eyes of an astronaut seeing it juxtaposed with the world it is now, is both thought provoking and heart warming. With hints of diverse characters that once occupied the planet we see a few Muslims in the illustrations in this work of art coauthored by a Pakistani-Canadian.

Books like this show story telling is more than just words, it allows the reader to engage themselves in understanding what the pictures are saying and also in providing their own imagination to what could be happening. An absolute must on classroom and library shelves. As my mother, a decades long ESL and reading teacher would say, "Let kids tell the story, even if they cannot read it."

Viewfinder
By Christine D.U. Chung; Salwa Majok

What a gorgeous book. 144 pages, wordless, thought provoking, whimsical. This is sort of a graphic novel yet for kids. The audience is 6-9 year old readers but there’s more to it than just those four years in one age group. I feel this book is ageless. As an adult I found parts intriguing, engaging, puzzling. And bittersweet.

No spoilers. A young girl travels through space gathering trinkets for her collection and ends up following a star of sorts that lead her to Planet Earth. She lands at a school with no signs of life…human life. Upon finding a "time-capsule" with a VIEWFINDER inside a story starts to unfold. It’s like a treasure hunt as she follows it like a map-where signs of other kinds of life start to pop up, sparkle, shimmer. The trees, flowers, monkeys, mammoths, mice, crabs and glowing mushrooms gather and rise to meet her on the various paths of her travels through the city. Everything lends itself to telling a powerful yet playful story, whether immediate or leading onward to the next part of the adventure, all while leaving clues that weave pictures of a seemingly recent past. The story is really about a planet full of wonder that it once had or still has in abundance if you are curious enough to seek out and actively nurture it. Your mind will be swirling: What happened to the planet? Where did the people go? Is she alone? Is she playing explorer? Is she staying or just passing through? And who does that darn cat belong to? Only the imagination really knows the answers. Hers and mine!

I recommend this beautifully illustrated book not only for a good night read but for the adventure, the possibilities therein and also for the valuable lessons that will resonate about the Planet Earth we share and inhabit. Like the planet this book will nurture the playground of a child's imagination when embraced and given a chance to explore and grow. I think this layered book has a lot to offer-so take the adventure yourself or with a child and maybe together see what it reveals–to you and talk about it. It’s that kind of book!

Thanks to Tundra Books and NetGalley for the advanced copy for review.