PreS-K--In graphite illustrations on textured paper that appear to be digitally enhanced, the creators lay out the heartbreakingly human need for tears, in small and large doses, as a means of clearing the psyche, cleaning the clock, lightening the load, and necessarily giving in to grief. It starts simply: "Sometimes, when our hearts hurt, our eyes fill up and we cry. Everyone cries. Little kids. Big kids." And adults. And trees. The depth of compassion found in this book, and the narrative, which lightly treads between physical facts and philosophical notions, make it accessible to educators and children alike. Early use of a grayish-green gives way to brighter colors; the spreads of interior shots of people weeping lead to a scene of a hot-air balloon soaring beyond the clouds, and two children racing down a garden path. VERDICT Beginning with tears and ending in joy, this is a book that explains so much in very few words, selected with precision and as polished as a tone poem. A good choice for most collections.--Kimberly Olson Fakih, School Library Journal

Meditations about crying. "Sometimes, when our hearts hurt, our eyes fill up and we cry," opens the text, thankfully segueing quickly to a less-cloying register. Much of Delacroix's piece is straightforward and affirming, explaining who cries--"Everyone cries. Little kids. Big kids. / Once in a while, grownups cry"--and why: "Crying cleans our messy feelings," and after doing it, "we feel lighter, ready for new adventures." One page undermines this acceptance: Across from a child portraying the "times we keep [tears] to ourselves" (face buried in arms) is a child portraying the times "we want our tears to be seen" with a dramatic hand gesture, a theater spotlight, and curtains evoking a stage. Readers shy about crying may shrink away if they think their weeping could be seen as a theatrical performance. Cryptic details pop up: "Crocodiles, with their thick, scaly skin, cry too"--but the young audience will likely have no context for crocodile tears, either metaphoric or biological; "sometimes even trees weep"--but is that an unspoken weeping-willow pun, a reference to transpiration, or something deeper? Art combines teardrop patterns with a photorealistic drawing style, mostly black-and-white, featuring shading and big-eyed close-ups of the two White-presenting children who are featured. Cleverly, tears threatening "to wash everything away" form an ocean; a rising hot air balloon drops a ballast bag of tears; and one child's tears form a park fountain. Inconsistent, but an evergreen topic. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.