Before You Came

Writing by Anne Renaud

Illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

Peanut Butter Press

978-1-927735-90-9

28 pp.

Ages 5+

March 2026 

 

From Anne Renaud, author of Mr. Crum's Potato Predicament (2017), Fania's Heart (2018), and The True Tale of a Giantess: The Story of Anne Swan (2018), comes less of a story and more of a lullaby in Before You Came. In words that are warm and sweet, the narrator speaks to a child, recalling the emotions of anticipating the arrival.

By day my heart sang out to you,

close to bursting.

My love did not know where to go. (pg. 11)

From Before You Came, written by Anne Renaud, illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

In gentle but powerful words, Anne Renaud's narrator speaks to a child yet to arrive, perhaps by birth or by adoption, about what they are feeling and imagining. It's all about a bond that is growing, and dreams and love that will be realized. 

The day you came, I gave you

all the pieces of me—

from the very first moment. (pg. 21) 

From Before You Came, written by Anne Renaud, illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

The love that this parent feels for this child, before they are even more than a whisper, is remarkable. It is deep and complex, encompassing the promise of what is and what is to be. Anne Renaud's text is so poignant than the reader, whether adult or child, will appreciate the sentiment. I can only wish that every child could feel the adoration that this child will know.

From Before You Came, written by Anne Renaud, illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

Because Anne Renaud's free verse is so intense, it would have been a challenge to find an illustrator who could match the spirit of that devotion. Nahid Kazemi, who illustrated Joanne Schwartz's picture book The Old Woman (2020) as well as many other wonderful picture books, echoes that sentiment with her PanPastel and pigment art. Her illustrations are delicate and ethereal, matching the love that is felt so intensely. There is a surreal nature to Nahid Kazemi's art, whether it be lungs with a bird in a nest resting there, or arms embracing a house. What her art tells us is the breadth and personal nature of this love. 

Though the words speak to a child, Before You Came would make a lovely gift for a new parent or parent-to-be so that they might read it to their own child. So, keep this elegant book in mind for anyone who will be touched by the tenderness of a parent's love for a child. That love may be difficult to express in words and art, but Anne Renaud and Nahid Kazemi express it with aplomb.

 

• • • • • • • 

 

The French-language edition, Avant que tu ne sois là, was published in 2023 by Les Éditions Héritage.

The Old Woman

Written by Joanne Schwartz

Illustrated by Nahid Kazemi

Groundwood Books

978-1-77306-211-2

36 pp.

Ages 5-9

September 2020

 

As fall will soon blend into winter, The Old Woman seems a perfect read. Just as a calendar year trudges onto its end, an elderly woman and her equally-aged dog plod on in their lives, albeit in good company, never hurrying, getting where they will when they do.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi

When the old woman and the dog head out into the hills for a walk because she "wanted to hear the crunch of dry leaves under her feet and the wind whispering through the trees," she remembers the trees, boulder and rocks and "when she used to play outside for hours, never wanting to go in." They walk, they play–well, she tosses sticks and the dog chases them– and they rest and they appreciate what is.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi

It's hard to identify the mood of Joanne Schwartz and Nahid Kazemi's picture book The Old Woman.  Both the text and the art whisper of a melancholic story of an elderly woman and her vigilant canine companion. But it's not. This is a story of serenity and memory and togetherness. It has the heart that comes from many years of living, alone and together, of caring for others and contemplating the vastness of the world while appreciating the small domain created through companionship.

 

The Old Woman is not a story of loneliness, though some may see it that way, especially through the lens of a COVID19-inflicted society.  But it is not. The woman may be appear to be lonesome but the story is more about living each day as possible with an occasional look back to what was. It's this wistfulness that touched me. Between Joanne Schwartz's words evoking such emotional tranquility and Nahid Kazemi's ethereal illustrations of filmy chalk pastels and coloured pencils that give The Old Woman such solemnity, I cried each time I read The Old Woman.

 

I hope that when we all pass from fall to winter that we all have the companionship of a loyal friend and the will to appreciate what we had and have, even if more slowly.

From The Old Woman by Joanne Schwartz, illus. by Nahid Kazemi