Do You Remember?

A master class in subtlety, Do You Remember? by Sydney Smith is a quiet, introspective picture book that leaves space for the reader.

A boy and his mother are in their new apartment reminiscing about the past and ruminating on creating new memories.

Sydney Smith is the master of storytelling. His books are always so quiet and expansive. Do You Remember? continues his legacy of gorgeous watercolour and gouche illustrations and simple text to create a world for the reader that they can immediately immerse themselves into.  

Do You Remember? takes the readers inside the remembrances of a mother and a child, each trading stories back and forth about their time before the move. Sydney Smith leaves a lot of room for wonder in the story. At one point, there is a dad in the memories and then it’s just the mom and the boy. What happened? I love how space was made for the readers to infer their own ideas of what might have happened to the family. It makes room for conversations about memories and families and opens a safe space to talk about things that could be both wonderful and sad all at the same time. Each reader will have their own unique interpretation of the story, based on their own experiences.

The illustrations are stunning. Incredible up close but even more compelling from far away, the edges are blurred enough to keep with the openness of the story so that each reader will be able to see themselves in the pages.