• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3
• Reading age: 4 to 8

In this interactive, one-of-a-kind wordless picture book, extraordinary things are happening behind the windows of the city.

A young girl is walking home from school in a big city. As she gazes up at window after window in the buildings on her route --- each one a different shape and size --- she imagines what might be going on behind them. By opening the gatefold, readers will come upon the most fantastical scenes. An indoor jungle. A whale in a bathtub. Vampires playing badminton. The girl's imagination knows no bounds. Until, behind the very last window, we find the girl back home in her own room, where the toys surrounding her look strangely familiar.

This highly original wordless picture book by Marion Arbona is a celebration of curiosity and imagination that is sure to inspire a sense of wonder in readers of all ages. There are thirteen windows to open in all, and each scene is intricately drawn in black and white and packed with level upon level of extraordinary details to explore: a gathering of gnomes, a deep-sea diver among glowing underwater creatures, a collection of masks, cars that drive up the walls. In a clever touch, each window contains a clue to what's behind it --- for example, a plant on the ledge of the window that opens to the jungle, and a window shaped like a porthole that reveals the whale in a bathtub. With so much going on, this book will entice even the youngest children to pore over the pages for close reading, promoting observation skills and visual literacy.

After obtaining a diploma in film animation at Les arts Décoratifs de Paris, French artist Marion Arbona started working as an illustrator for children’s books. Her illustrations, painted with gouache, are colorful and funny. She likes to draw fully detailed scenes. When she is not drawing, she is particularly interested in deep sea fish, cats (even though she is allergic) and weird plants. Marion was awarded several illustration prizes in the USA and in Canada where she lived for 10 years. She returned to live in Paris in 2015.

Marion Arbona's profile page

• Short-listed, Elizabeth Mrazik-Cleaver Canadian Picture Book Award, IBBY Canada
• Winner, Best Picture Books of 2020, Kirkus Reviews
• Winner, Books of the Year: Books for Young People, Quill & Quire

Arbona's teeming scenes should inspire both close observation and new compositions by young readers/artists.

Kirkus Reviews, starred review

Window ... makes Alice's Wonderland look like bland suburbia.

Quill & Quire, starred review

Arbona is a great talent, and Window is a fabulous book.

CM Magazine

It's wonderfully clever and entirely black and white. Black and white AND wordless AND full of gatefolds? Who knew classy could ever be this fun?

Elizabeth Bird for School Library Journal