Afterward, Everything Was Different by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng - ADVISABLE

Afterward, Everything Was Different by Jairo Buitrago, illustrated by Rafael Yockteng.  PICTURE BOOK. Greystone Kids, 2023. $20. 9781778400605

BUYING ADVISORY: EL (4-6), MS, HS – ADVISABLE

AUDIENCE APPEAL: AVERAGE

In this book of very few words, we see the events of prehistoric peoples during the Pleistocene era, that eventually led to the cave paintings like Lascaux Cave in France.

It’s very rare in a picture book for so much of the story (ironically enough) to be told through pictures. The pencil illustrations are so detailed and create plenty of opportunity for the reader to practice valuable inferencing skills. The book shows the inherent danger of everyday life for early hominids between the unforgiving nature and environment, to megafauna that trample and attack. I thought the storytelling was quite interesting, but some of the assumptions of prehistoric society felt a little unsubstantiated.

Kiera, #bookswithbeddes