This has a nice premise (walls can be good or bad and there are lots of kinds of walls) but the delivery is a little lacking. It's one of those picture books where there is the text and then there are random words all over the pages too, making it difficult to read as a read-aloud. It's too youngish for older readers but younger readers will need it read to them (and then you have to point and read random words), so it's hard to say who the designated audience is. I could see it being used as a discussion tool in a classroom, but it's not exactly a book kids would *enjoy* and is too sparse to actually teach much. The art is nice enough and any book that encourages this kind of dialog is nice, but for me it was two stars for "it was okay."

I read a temporary digital ARC of this book for the purpose of review.

Sometimes a Wall takes place on a playground where the children have different walls to experience. They learn that walls can bring us together or keep us apart. Walls can bring out feelings of community or feelings of isolation. 

The simple text will keep younger children engaged with its rhyming words. School age students will be use the text and illustrations to use their retelling skills, improving narrative, inferencing, and description skills along the way. 

Thank you to OwlKids Books and NetGalley for the electronic ARC for review.

Sometimes a Wall is a valuable look at today's society and how we create walls, real or imagined, based on perceptions or points of view. In this picture book, children are working together until there is discord and the feelings begin. Such a great story to share with young children in this time of walls being built! The text is sparse, yet says volumes with the illustrations. Use this and possibly Jon Agee's The Wall in the Middle of the Book to look at the perspectives from "both sides of the wall."

Thank you NetGalley and the publisher for allowing an advance read in exchange for an honest review. 

The reading of this picture book is all in the delivery.  Children will read it, but I'm not sure they will get the big picture (no pun intended).

'Sometimes A Wall...' is an interesting picture book that attempts to tackle the difficult subject of walls. It is a good primer on what walls can be used for and represent. Although a pretty simple book, it would probably be best to promote discussion with older elementary aged children and how/why walls are implemented. For younger children, it could be used to teach about bullying. Overall, a pretty interesting book with lovely illustrations. 

Thank you NetGalley and OwlKids Books for providing this ARC.

This book is suitable for preschool and up. It is a good introduction for the basics of what is a wall, and also the deeper meaning of the reasons for walls and their effects on a population. Upper elementary children can use it for discusssions on current political climates and bullying, as well. The illustrations are darling and colorful, the text is simplistic. I would add this to my classroom library and curriculum.

When life for the entire universe and planet turns on its end and like everyone else you "have nothing to do" while your place of work is closed and you are in #socialisolation,  superspeed readers like me can read 250+ pages/hour, so yes, I have read the book … and many more today. (I have played a zillion games of scrabble, done a zillion crosswords and I AM BORED!!!)

I requested and received a temporary digital Advance Reader Copy of this book from #NetGalley, the publisher and the author in exchange for an honest review.  

From the publisher, as I do not repeat the contents or story of books in reviews, I let them do it as they do it better than I do 😸.

An afternoon in the playground introduces different kinds of walls: a brick wall to draw on with chalk, a water wall, and a climbing wall. What follows is a playful yet profound exploration of the many ways walls can divide us or bring us together. When one child is excluded from a game, another builds a castle to leave him out. When the builder declares the castle MINE, other kids feel alienated—but the builder becomes lonely, too, when the others have fun without him. The book ends with the optimism of a new start: friendship, forgiveness, and imagination give the wall new meaning.

Told with short, simple lines of playful, rhyming text and loose line illustrations by internationally known artist Barroux, this book sparks questions with empathy, insight, and charm. It’s a timely tool for inquiry-based and social-emotional learning, sharing the important message that walls can unite or divide, depending on the choices we make.

This is a really great book to have read: it explains the walls (and the wanted one on the US/Mexico border) better than any way I could to children. The illustrations are enjoyable and the story was well written to explain ...this ... what is the right word? Phenomenon? Fool's folly? Insanity?   This is an important book and it should be read to your children ... and soon!