People Are My Favorite Places

Told through the perspective of a young child, People Are My Favorite Places is a heartwarming depiction of pandemic life and the shift in priorities it inspired. When forced to stay in her home with only her family members, the young unnamed narrator of this picture book realizes that people are in fact her “favorite places to visit”. While she confesses to missing locations like beaches and mountains, that loss means nothing compared to not being able to interact with the people in her life she loves and celebrate the unique details of their bodies and personalities.

In fact, when she examines every experience that she misses (watching movies, eating noodles, etc.), she realizes that the part she misses most about the experiences is sharing them with other people. While lamenting this lack of in-person contact, the child remembers to express her gratitude that there are still many ways she can still experience the people she loves (i.e. in her memories, via video conference, etc.), and she reminds herself to completely embrace and cherish the contact she will eventually be able to make in-person.

Ani Castillo’s illustrations, a delightful combination of watercolours and black pencil, give the story a homey, lived-in quality well-suited for the homebound setting. The style perfectly encapsulates the text’s celebration of the messy realities of people and the sensory experiences of being out and about with others that we missed most at a time of isolation and confinement.