Angela's Glacier is an evocative, expressive tale of how the bond between a child and her father--and their shared love for the "ancient blue" of a frigid landscape--leads the girl to find her own heartbeat in the gentle, familiar sound of "a glacier's music."
Angela's glacier, "covered in clouds" before she is born, suddenly "bloom[s] under the milky Arctic sunlight" when Angela makes her appearance. Before she can walk there herself, her father carries her "to the glacier's ice-blue heart," where Angela listens contentedly to a "universe of sound." Angela's father teaches her the glacier's name, Snæfellsjökull, as they go. As Angela grows, she begins visiting on her own. Eventually, though, the busy kid "walk[s] away from her glacier." That's when Angela realizes her heart "sound[s] strange." Her father advises her to visit Snæfellsjökull--only then is she able to find the true rhythm of her heart, as it beats over and over: SNÆ FELLS JÖ KULL.
As he did with the text of the magnificent I Talk Like a River, Jordan Scott makes use of elements of the natural world to explore the art of staying grounded. Here, Scott fashions a story about a girl and a glacier that's surprisingly accessible. Rhythmic, melodious language conjures a kinship for the harsh and beautiful landscape and its "coldest of cold" heart: Snæfellsjökull. Diana Sudyka's (Little Land) dazzling gouache and digital illustrations effortlessly imbue sky, land, water, humans, and animals alike with vitality and elan, her lushly colored world singing with the glacier's sound. This inspiring picture book celebrates the wonder of "staying still" and listening to "ourselves [and] to each other." --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author