Book Recommendation: ‘Remember’ by Joy Harjo, illustrated by Michaela Goade

Recommended by Beth Lokken, youth services librarian, Door County Library

Looking for a beautiful, contemplative picture book that speaks to adults as well as children? Remember, by Joy Harjo, is that book! 

Each page promotes quiet contemplation around the ideas of where, who and what we came from. The richly colored, gracefully symbolic art invokes Goade’s Tlingit heritage, and encourages you to take your time with each page to really soak in both the words and the images.

Remember’s text is a 1983 poem by United States Poet Laureate Joy Harjo, a member of the Mvskoke Nation. The illustrator, Michaela Goade – who won the 2021 Caldecott Award for We Are Water Protectors,” once again brings her Tlingit Nation background to her art. This book is on everyone’s radar for awards-season this year; if it doesn’t win the Caldecott (for art in a picture book that enhances the story), it will be in the list as a runner-up. 

Please take the time to read the author and illustrator notes at the end of the book. Both short statements are a lovely introduction to their thought processes as they created this truly stunning work of art.