A neanderthal boy goes out for a day of adventure, and meets a Homo Sapiens boy. It’s brief, but exciting and confusing.

The world here is beautiful, and familiar. Most of the plants and animals look like a pretty standard plains ecosystem. There’s beech trees, long grasses, birds, rodents, a bear, deer, and bugs. And then we meet the wooly mammoth. Such a strange sight! In fact, it’s stranger than the Homo Sapiens boy, unless you have the context of this book already.

If you didn’t know that’s what was happening before you got to the author’s note at the end, you might just think it’s about boys from different families, but the same species. Which is some of the point, the idea that we existed together, different in physical makeup, but similar in abilities and emotions. But I feel like a bit more should have been done to help younger readers realize there was something bigger going on. The Homo Sapiens adults are in only one drawing, and are across a stream, and not too detailed, so the only big difference I noticed is that they all have shoes.

The author’s note is great. We get an idea of the neanderthal temporal range, through which areas they spread, and what their craft and technology level was like. It includes some great drawings of tool shaping and hide processing. Also, I deeply appreciate that we see one mother breastfeeding early in the book, as well as the note mentioning the care taken within the community.

Overall, I really enjoyed this. It’s adventurous and also a bit educational.

Advanced reader copy provided by the publisher.

A nice picture book about neanderthals and early humans, which I feel like isn't a common topic (at least in our store). The art is full of beautiful landscapes and I loved seeing the prehistoric world. There's not too much text and a fairly simple story so this could be read to younger kids, but with the topic and information section at the end it can also appeal to older kids and to schools.

Beautiful artwork and story that will appeal to young children with an interest in Neanderthals or prehistoric history. It would be great for a younger child too for expanding on opposites and actions as it uses a lot of here/there, near/far behind/in front. It also encourages a love of beauty and nature. I highly recommend it.

Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra Books, and Netgalley for an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

I absolutely LOVE this book. It’s beautifully written, and the illustrations are just stunning. Not only does Chuck Groenink know how to use perspectives and colors, but it’s the way he works with light in his illustrations that makes it look almost magical. I would definitely recommend this book to everyone I know.

This is such a unique story of a Neanderthal boy, told in an almost poetic or lyrical text, and through atmospheric illustrations. The feeling of curiosity and adventure, the discovery of a Homo Sapiens, and every step this boy takes, the reader takes with him. Beautiful.

Perfect for any picture book collection, the artwork glows and the simple text leads the reader on a journey through both the expected children's book landscape of near/far and big/small as well as the unexpected territory of us/them and we/together. Younger children will relate to the running, jumping, tumbling, exploring of the main character, while older children will enjoy the visual scavenger hunt created by the detailed artwork. Adult readers will appreciate the end matter and discussion of our evolving understanding of the Neanderthal way of life while programming staff will find this a fantastic book to pair with a finger painting or map making activity. Thank you to NetGalley for access to this delightful arc!

Boy Here, Boy There is a book about a small boy on an adventure to explore his world. Since the book is written from the perspective of a neanderthal boy, the sentence structure is less complex than most picture books. I could use this book in the classroom for a fun read, and then have the kids reconstruct the sentences to make them work for our world. I saw a lot of ways to use this book for the classroom.

I loved this book so much! The writing style worked perfectly for the topic and I think showed the boys viewpoint really well. I absolutely loved the illustrations. The pictures of the boy looking out into the world and looking up into the trees were gorgeous. I would absolutely read more books by this writer and illustrator.

I think this is the first time I have seen breast feeding shown in a children’s book. I think it was really well done having it in the background without needing to necessarily drawn attention to it.

So cute! I loved how the boy referred to the different creatures, like "crawlers," and "big growlers" (aka bears). My favorite scene was when the boy encountered the "big hairs" aka the mammoths and came face to face with an adorable "little hairy" who looked very excited to meet him!
Beautiful illustrations!

This was so sweet. A lovely and touching moment between two different and yet similar groups of people.

I loved this story and thought it was so cute. Such a fun way to teach about evolution!!! My toddler enjoyed it but children older than that would get much more out of it.

Boy Here, Boy There (Hardcover)
by Chuck Groenink
Looking at the life of a Neanderthal child. The book shows how similar to modern children a young Neanderthal boy and his family. How they lived in caves. How they were connected into families. this book is a great resource for showing the youngest children the science of anthropology, and archeology. The book also shows that the remains of these people can tell modern children how they lived.

This is a picture book imagining the life of a prehistoric child. If we follow our family tree back far enough we might see where Neanderthals and early humans co-existed. Our young protagonist spends his days exploring, much like modern children. Curious about the world he ends up on a river bank looking across at another boy; similar but different to himself. Would they be friends? Could they be friends? The imagination soars at the potential meeting. The illustrations are engaging and flow with the simple story.