Neither Here Nor There! In-Between Things by Priscilla Tey

Take a little bit of yellow and
a little bit of blue,
and the in-between color
is a new greenish hue.

In addition to the secondary colors, there is a whole world of things that live in the between--bridges and roads, doors, floors, and stairs, dusk and dawn. Some things can be both between and on both sides, like the living room between the roof and the floor, and the floor between the living room and the cellar. The dog lies between the cat napping on top of him and the carpet below him, which is itself between the dog and the floor.

Then there are those things that move between. The cat goes through the door. The dog goes up the stair. And then there are things that partake of two things at one time.

A little bit of skirt and
a little bit of short,
and the in-between
outfit you get is a skort.

A little bit of spoon
and a little bit of fork,
and the in-between
tool you get is a spork.

And right there in front of us is that most-between thing--the between-the-covers book of things that are in-between, in Priscilla Tey's In-Between Things (Candlewick Press, 2018). Tey's first book is a fresh look at things that are neither here nor there, this or that, what or where, through the eyes of a new author-illustrator with a way with words and a canny look at the chimera of things that are in an intermediate stages of temporal being, which when you think about it, is also the human condition!

But with whimsy and wonderful translucent illustrations with the look of the tissue paper collages of Eric Carle, Tey's creative celebration of things in the merry middle of being in or out, this or that, above or below, is fascinating reading. Her playful rhyming visions are acted out by a likable cast, a fluffy cat and a sleek dog, some mice and creepy-crawling creatures, and objects that can be more than one thing or in more than one place. It's great fun for the imagination, with some simple concepts (above, below, high and low) and some deeper thoughts on those borderline concepts that will intrigue older readers.

Says School Library Journal, "The dog and the cat are constant connections throughout the book, giving readers a consistent link between the various physical and intellectual spaces through which the narrative travels. Unique and thought-provoking."