Spare, lovely text and gorgeous, color-saturated illustrations make a compelling presentation.

An enchanting picture book about the joyful, mysterious, awe-inspiring messages of light, whether emanating from a firefly or the sun, fireworks or the Big Bang, boats at sea or a bolt of lightning, a movie projector or a rainbow. Luciana Navarro Powell’s illustrations follow a group of kids through a magical day and evening in a seacoast town, while Christine Layton’s lyrical text explores the natural history of light. Backmatter provides further adventures in the science of light.