“If you are a boy named Isamu … you find a secret place so you can look at the ocean and see the shapes of things.” A spare, eloquent second-person picture-book narrative imagines a day in the life of the Japanese American artist Isamu Noguchi when he was a child. Leaving the crowded market, Isamu wanders, and wonders. He asks questions about the nature of things (“How does fruit get its color?”) and notices—the fan blades of grass tossed in the air, the texture of stones, and shapes, especially shapes. As an adult, Noguchi was known for his sculptures of wood, paper, and stone, as well as landscape design. His observant way of being in the world and interacting with nature as imagined here is perfectly paired with understated illustrations. (Ages 5-8)