Every so often I find a book that has a lot of great pieces to its puzzle, yet, I am not sure if I am the audience it is meant to be for. And Queen of Day by Jacob Sager Weinstein and illustrator Victo Ngai is one of those books. The illustrations are lovely, the story interesting, there is a positive flow that is thoughtful and clever. But something is missing.
I would say it is adventurous, mysterious, reflective and medium-paced. The grandfather and granddaughter narrators, with the story elements, blend together to make the theme of “The whole world’s a chess game. Day versus Night.” and it is played across the world, coming to its conclusion. It is poetic, dreamy and pauses to keep you centered, but moving forward. Do I like this book? I think so. This is not a one and done read. It is not something you can rush through. I read it via an online reader copy, but come March 2027, I will have to find a finished copy to see what I missed, what my stopping and thinking about it amounted to. Plus, to just enjoy the artwork again.
The images are for me the strongest piece of things. Not to say the story isn’t strong, but I like the dream quality and the brightly and body presented illustrations. They are not overly crowded, but they are busy and things need to be explored. Perhaps a bit more poetically based than the usual action picture book, this could be adapted for most ages, but it is for at least five on up. But if done right, it can be up to 8 or 9, especially with the reading solo.
