
Member Reviews

All in a Year tracks a family's changes over a year. The text includes questions to readers for interaction with the illustrations to create a search and find. The book showcases a new house, different phases of life, holidays and seasons. It incorporates discussion, weather, and seasons. Great for discussions and interactive read aloud. Recommended for ages 3-7

There is so much for preschoolers to love in this book! The story tracks the Tanaka family through a year after moving into a new home, where each season offers new activities for the children. The story subtly shows how they slowly connect with their new neighbors — cooking, enjoying meals, making art, celebrating holidays — first as a family and eventually with the community. Each spread invites children to find and count details in illustrations that are packed with them. Well designed, with thoroughly delightful text and illustrations.

Join the Tanaka family as they celebrate and experience the changing seasons and their new home. Young readers will enjoy the beautiful, boldly colored illustrations and fun, interactive prompts on each page. A great introduction to the concept and passing of time.

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the eARC of this book, "All in a Year," by Chihiro Takeuchi. This book is a sequel to the book "All in a Day" and it describes the activities of the Tanaka family throughout one year of their lives. Each page describes an activity in a specific location, and provides prompts like a seek-and-find book. The art style is bright and cheerful, which surely will draw in children. While I found the text to be sometimes clunky and sometimes too generic, the book moves at a nice pace. I do question the age group for this book though, as the art is sometimes more representational/symbolic and other times more realistic, which could could confuse children. Ultimately, this is a nice book for engaging children, and could be a great option for a kindergarten teacher to read or leave for a substitute, especially as it provides the prompts.

Thank you to the publisher and to NetGalley for the eARC! A cute story about what happens throughout the year. I like how the book talks about seasons and the pictures are the same just highlighting the differences each season brings.

I really liked this book! An excellent sequel to All in a Day, and I loved to see how the characters from that book developed in this one. I also really enjoy the scavenger hunt aspect of these books. I feel like that would be very fun for younger readers, and it would also help keep them engaged. Very charming!

Beautiful illustrations with lots to look at on each page. Simple story includes interactive prompts to dive deeper into the pictures on each page. Great book to share with a curious young reader that loves every detail.

For an interactive book like this, it's all in the illustrations. I found them a little confusing in terms of what country they were trying to represent. I see Japanese culture, but American style homes. But for a small child, this makes no difference at all and if the illustrations are engaging and if they spark conversation between an adult and a child, that's fine. It would not be my first choice for a gift, but it would be nice to see this in libraries and school classrooms.
Thank you to NetGalley for an advance copy of this book. It's a bit awkward, but I bet small children will love it.

A charming mix of question and answer prompts mixing finding hidden objects with counting and describing people or things. As a Japanese American, I found the mix of international holiday traditions with Japanese cultural holidays/traditions to be a nice balance that's both accessible for any type of young reader/listener. The illustrations were appealing and easy to see, though the text size felt rather small compared to the rest of the book's contents. Additionally, certain prompts' phrasing felt a bit awkward or had rather complex vocabulary, lending this book to be one that may be understood better if read aloud to young children as opposed to them reading it themselves. Otherwise, the book had a cute story and had variety to keep young readers interested and engaged.

I received an electronic ARC from Publisher Spotlight through NetGalley.
The Tanaka family is moving when the book starts. Readers get to spend time with them for the next year as they settle in and enjoy each month/season. I appreciate the challenges for readers on each page spread. They need to find items that connect to the text. The artwork is done in a simple style. Some of the text does not flow well but the overall story works.