What Do You Know?

What Do You Know? is an introspective, poetic picture book about the acts of questioning and listening. Asked by Love itself, the questions wonder aloud, seeking the knowing of an array of very different, yet interconnected, entities and beings. Instead of pointing and naming, here the asker seeks to know the world by listening to it. Tell me, land, farmer, well, rock, fruit bat, courage––what do you know? Across these pages, children will wonder at what we can learn, when we open ourselves up to listening to the world.

“Fields draws as if setting down memories or dreams, with forms that repeat: people and birds with downcast gazes, bears with great claws, landscapes that undulate like ocean waves. Employing incantatory lines that conjure flame-like warmth and reverence, Girmay and Fields acknowledge the kind of knowing that’s older than books.” — Publishers Weekly “[In] this lyrical exploration of the world, ... the musings are philosophical, ecological, poetic, and even sociological in nature. ... Both text and art seem intentionally open-ended, leaving space for readers to extend meaning in their own ways, making it a fitting writing prompt for students (of all ages). Slightly muted, earth-toned illustrations feature flowing lines—from the multicolored furrows of a farmer’s plowed field to the rays of light in a starry night sky—that compel page turns. A contemplative, enigmatic exploration of life on planet Earth.” — Kirkus Reviews “A sweeping, complex and mysterious vision of love... Here, love is the protagonist who, in poetic and enigmatic text, wanders about asking questions of people, animals and even rocks... With soft lines and smudged colors, Ms. Fields’s pictures have a dreamlike quality... What Do You Know? is an indirect mechanism for delivering love to readers ages 5-8, but with its varied scenes and characters, it fosters a sense of the wondrous width of the world and the connections between seemingly disparate things in it.” — Wall Street Journal “Created by two sisters, this picture book… celebrates the wild diversity of life on earth but also the connection to wonder and mystery around us. The book is simple yet deeply profound, offering hope in darkness, the breath of whales and bears, and the magnificence of change even if it takes millennia… The writing is gentle and responsive, allowing each scenario to stand unique but also part of the whole. The art is bold and simple… It invites us to see the beauty in laundry on an urban line, the marvel of goats on cliffs, and the profound black of a starlit night. Gorgeous, deep and full of marvels.” — Waking Brain Cells “This is a truly beautiful picture book with text based on the last line of Sharon Olds amazing and haunting poem ‘Looking at Them Asleep.’ ‘When love comes to me and says What do you know, I say This girl, this boy.’ In What Do You Know?, Love comes to a honey bee, a farmer, a historian, volcanic ash, a rock and more, and asks the question. Each person or object gives a thoughtful and honest answer giving the reader a mini-lesson in patience, guidance, understanding, balance and joy.” —Youth Services Book Review

Ariana Fields is a graduate of SFAI (printmaking) and the City College Masters of Landscape Architecture program. She is interested in visual modes of storytelling, representations of movement, and works on paper. When she is not building, gardening, or drawing, she is making shapes with her body skating and surfing. Aracelis Girmay is a mother, auntie, teacher, and writer. Originally from Southern California, where the names of streets like Orange, Cherry, Bristol, Laurel, Buffalo, Santa Clara, Lime were a kind of poetry, she now lives and reads with her family in Brooklyn, New York.