"Wordless panels show someone's silhouette looking out of a foggy window. The page turns and perspective shifts to show a child riding the bus dressed for winter. The child disembarks and the next few pages are presented like snapshots, with snippets of city life--buildings, lights, crowds, and sidewalks--painted with dark ink lines that underscore the narrator's message about how overwhelming urban life can be. The use of line, reflection, and perspective masterfully evoke a bustling gray city, making this thoughtful book an artful choice"-- School Library Journal , Starred Review "The straightforward text is juxtaposed against stirring artwork whose drama is heightened by the swirling snowstorm that permeates the pages. The ink, watercolor, gouache pictures have a unique, sometimes startling look as they divide into strips or fill the pages. They capture both the city's pace and its stark beauty, even on a raw winter's day. Smith's art has been award winning, but here he becomes author as well as illustrator. He does both titles proud in this stirring piece.

"-- Booklist , Starred Review "Young readers will feel their hearts constrict, as they all know what it's like to confront a towering, intimidating world. This incisive language distills the hardest part of childhood: the precarious hold small people have on their own agency. A brilliant narrative twist reveals itself at the end of this tender picture book, which stretches readers' concern painfully as the voice begins warning of dark alleys and dogs, and points to warm churches and free food. Extraordinary, emotional, and beautifully rendered." --Kirkus Reviews , Starred Review "Smith's understated portrait of longing for the return of a beloved family member takes readers on a quiet but powerful emotional journey, one whose intensity Smith tracks visually as the winter storm becomes a blizzard and the driving wind makes it nearly impossible to see--until, just as suddenly, it lifts. The story's spotlight is not on the loss of the pet, or on its return, but on the state of suspension in between--a mixture of grief, resignation, and patient waiting--and the independent child narrator's loving regard for the animal as an autonomous being."-- Publishers Weekly , Starred Review "The atmosphere will draw listeners in immediately . and many youngsters will appreciate the recognition of how sensorily overwhelming a cityscape can be and the tips for finding smaller pools of quiet and respite.

The moody art, mostly line and watercolor with some gouache for thicker textures in the snow, employs the subdued hues of gloomy winter, with scenes of city geometry of streets and lights sometimes captured within square-bordered vignettes and sometimes opening up to full spreads." -- The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review.