Afterward, Everything was Different

May 1, 2023
Sometime in the Pleistocene era, "maybe as far back as forty thousand or more years ago," early humans began to paint on the walls of their caves. Buitrago and Yockteng (Cave Paintings, rev. 1/21) imagine how that first cave painting came about and how, from there, storytelling was born. Wordless double-page spreads show a band of spear-carrying humans in a world with erupting volcanoes, enormous mammoths and bison, and saber-toothed cats. This is not an easy existence. In each spread, a child observes the details of life around her, noticing the stars, measuring an enormous footprint. It is this child who, when left alone in the cave, takes a burnt stick and uses the charcoal to draw a mammoth on the cave wall. When the rest of the group returns, we see her gaining their attention by telling the story she has depicted on the walls. At the end of these wordless pages comes one full page of text. Buitrago writes, "The cave was different afterward" and describes the girl's feelings about creating her art. He concludes, "The marks she made were never erased. As time went by, she became the leader of the clan." Yockteng's graphite and ink illustrations, in shades of black and white, successfully imagine this early time period and, more importantly, tell a story about the emergence and significance of storytelling. An afterword presents the historical and scientific underpinnings of the tale. Maeve Visser Knoth

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from May 29, 2023
Realistically intricate b&w pencil drawings chronicle the travails of migrating early humans in this enigmatic wordless adventure from Buitrago and Yockteng. Alternately nude or clad in animal skins and carrying spears, early hominids travel en masse through forests, grasslands, and treacherous waters, sometimes encountering dangerous animals along the way. A punishing snowstorm jeopardizes their path along a cliff’s edge, and an enormous boulder appears to flatten one of their group. Eventually, they settle in a cave, and when a youthful figure begins filling the cave walls with imagery depicting their journey, the group discovers an appreciation for storytelling. Concluding text summarizes how “the cave was different afterward,” noting that “the marks she made were never erased,” but it’s immersive sequencing throughout that provides page-turning drama in this absorbing portrait of Pleistocene perils. Ages 4–8.

Starred review from April 15, 2023
A wordless black-and-white tale detailing the journey of a Pleistocene family. Opening with six double-page graphite sketches of a bison hunt that precedes the title page--a cinematic touch that will have kids mesmerized from the get-go--this story of prehistoric people encourages readers to look closely, notice details, and imagine coexisting with saber-toothed cats and mastodons. Some animals (apelike creatures) are helpful companions of the hominids, some (primarily herbivores) live peaceably with them, while others see them as food. As the family travels, the youngest children, naked even in the snow, climb trees and play, while their older sister, who wears animal furs like the adults, examines footprints and looks out for predators. In their search for a cave home, they encounter many animals, including a gigantic bearlike creature that becomes the rug in their cave after they kill it. When the family leaves the girl alone inside the cave, she begins to draw on the stone walls with a charred stick, and by the time they return, she has covered the cave walls with an extensive pictorial story of their journey. Yockteng makes meticulous use of shading and ramps up the drama through thrilling use of scale that sees this intrepid family dwarfed by mountains, trees, and animals. This gorgeously illustrated work will encourage young readers to speculate about the joys, dangers, and complex family dynamics of the hominids of the Pleistocene. Characters have gray-tinged skin. Backmatter with more information on the Pleistocene is translated from Spanish. (This book was reviewed digitally.) A stirring and thought-provoking reflection on the essential part stories play in making us human. (Picture book. 4-9)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Starred review from May 1, 2023
Grades 2-4 *Starred Review* In wordless monochrome landscapes laid down in fascinating detail, Yockteng employs sophisticated brush- and pencilwork to portray a small clan of prehistoric wanderers making its way through a world of massive megafauna, taking refuge for the winter in a cave after battling its huge resident bear, and finally gathering in awe around a fire after one child uses materials to teach herself to draw the animals on the cave's walls and goes on to turn pictures into stories. In his two afterwords, Buitrago adds the thread of a story line, caps this commemoration of a watershed moment in human development with a description of the materials used for our oldest art, and writes lyrically of the sensibility that must have gone hand in hand with its creation: "She observed the light, got lost in the light, painted the light. As time went by . . . those who had survived the nights sought refuge there to find themselves, to sing, tell stories, to be themselves again." Though the author sets this episode in the Pleistocene, there are metaphorical levels to the tale for perceptive readers to glimpse, from depicting that first artist as a woman to assembling a ragged hominin cast composed of individuals belonging to different early and possibly even protohuman species. The facts may be lost to time; the truth is still there on cave walls and in all our storytimes.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

January 1, 2023
Sometime in the Pleistocene era, "maybe as far back as forty thousand or more years ago," early humans began to paint on the walls of their caves. Buitrago and Yockteng (Cave Paintings, rev. 1/21) imagine how that first cave painting came about and how, from there, storytelling was born. Wordless double-page spreads show a band of spear-carrying humans in a world with erupting volcanoes, enormous mammoths and bison, and saber-toothed cats. This is not an easy existence. In each spread, a child observes the details of life around her, noticing the stars, measuring an enormous footprint. It is this child who, when left alone in the cave, takes a burnt stick and uses the charcoal to draw a mammoth on the cave wall. When the rest of the group returns, we see her gaining their attention by telling the story she has depicted on the walls. At the end of these wordless pages comes one full page of text. Buitrago writes, "The cave was different afterward" and describes the girl's feelings about creating her art. He concludes, "The marks she made were never erased. As time went by, she became the leader of the clan." Yockteng's graphite and ink illustrations, in shades of black and white, successfully imagine this early time period and, more importantly, tell a story about the emergence and significance of storytelling. An afterword presents the historical and scientific underpinnings of the tale.

(Copyright 2023 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

December 22, 2023

K-Gr 3-In this charcoal and pencil gorgeously drawn mostly wordless picture book, a hunter and gatherer family of the Pleistocene is traveling through the seasons, harsh landscapes, and realistic representations of the magnificent beasts of the period-think wooly mammoths, giant sloths, saber-tooth tigers. Each spread is a snapshot of the harrowing adventures of the family traveling, hunting, and finding shelter. Ultimately our young heroine, in a cave, discovers drawing and telling a story. One dramatic spread shows the family trailing the side of a mountain path; the following spread discreetly shows the death of one member in a rockslide, feet still visible. The story ends with a fictionalized epilogue, written originally in Spanish and translated into English, about the young girl who discovers cave drawing becoming a leader of the clan. VERDICT Recommended as a read-along within a group or with a caregiver, the book will be of even further benefit if accompanied by explanation of the Pleistocene era.-Vi Ha

Copyright 2023 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.