Just Because

Just Because by Caldecott medal winner, Mac Barnett, and Canadian Governor General’s Literary Award winner, Isabelle Arsenault, is a charming and whimsical picture book. Seemingly out of the blue, a little girl, tucked into bed, curiously asks her father some questions. “What is the rain?” she muses. “What happened to the dinosaurs?” Her father patiently responds, not with “just because” answers (hence the title), but with fantastical, playful explanations. This invites more questions, not only from the little girl in the book, but from the children reading it. Arsenault’s calming yet vividly imagined illustrations make this a lovely bedtime read.