We don’t know much about Adrian Simcox, except that he is messy, poor and absolutely doesn’t own a horse. At least, that’s according to his assertive classmate Chloe.

Convinced that Adrian has been lying about his pet horse, Chloe loudly attempts to sway other students to adopt her opinion. It takes an evening walk and an accidentally on-purpose encounter (contrived by Chloe’s mom) at Adrian’s small home for Chloe to take the first steps toward friendship.

Earnestly written by Marcy Campbell, Adrian Simcox Does NOT Have a Horse is a creative and honest look at compassion. Campbell puts us inside Chloe’s mind, where her journey toward kindness is real and intimate. Chloe’s mother proves a clever teacher, gently encouraging Chloe to look deeper. Another artful lesson comes in Adrian’s open-hearted bravery as he takes the first steps toward forgiveness.

Corinna Luyken illustrates with precision and grace. Detailed, expressive faces and Chloe’s orderly house stand in contrast to the lavish gardens that burst across the page when Adrian imagines his horse. Hidden in the foliage are the rough outlines of the horse, so beautifully and artistically rendered that they are easily missed. Look carefully; they are worth finding.

School curricula that focus on acceptance and compassion will benefit from incorporating this story, which reminds all readers to look at others with empathy, because they may find a friend.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

BookPage Children's Top Pick, August 2018

Evan, a bright orange anthropomorphic fox in gardening overalls, and his dog are constant companions. They enjoy many hobbies, but more than anything else, the best friends love to work together in Evan’s garden. One moment they are relishing their time outdoors in their lush garden space; the next, Evan’s dog has passed away. Evan is devastated.

With his best friend gone and grief at the wheel, Evan loses his passion for gardening. In fact, he destroys his plants and tears angrily at the ground with a hoe. Weeds soon take over, but this is fine with Evan, as he wants the barren earth to reflect how he feels inside. But when a pumpkin begins to grow in his yard—despite all the weeds—Evan’s heart expands, and he begins to carefully tend to it. When Evan’s pumpkin grows large and wins third place at the county fair, he turns down the grand prize—a free puppy. But after bravely taking a peek inside the pen, he’s soon driving home with a new furry friend.

With tender restraint (the dog’s death is handled well, with merely six words and a poignant, but not graphic, image), author and illustrator Brian Lies has crafted a deeply felt story of new hope and healing after loss, one that altogether avoids excessive sentimentality. The pacing is flawless, and the emotions are never forced. Lies’ eloquently rendered illustrations play with light and shadow on full-bleed spreads that invite readers into Evan’s grief and his eventual journey from sorrow to newfound happiness.

Understated yet powerful, The Rough Patch is a story that stays with you.

This article was originally published in the August 2018 issue of BookPage. Download the entire issue for the Kindle or Nook.

In this inspiring companion book to the award-winning Trombone Shorty, published in 2015, Grammy-nominated jazz musician Troy Andrews, who performs as Trombone Shorty, re-visits his childhood in magical New Orleans.

As a child, Shorty played jazz with his group of friends in the Tremé neighborhood of the city. They called themselves the 5 O’Clock Band. Recalling his neighborhood and its culture with deep reverence, he describes an afternoon of getting “so lost in his own music” that he forgets to meet his band and is left pondering what precisely makes a good bandleader. As he strolls through the city streets, he talks to the friendly faces he passes—a musician, a chef and the chief of the neighborhood Mardi Gras Indian tribe—who give him advice on the subject. A love of tradition (knowing where the music comes from) and a dedication to the craft: These are the things that make a bandleader, he learns.

The use of repetition and the dialects local to his neighborhood (“WHERE Y’AT?” people call to Shorty) add flavor to the lengthy text. Andrews shares abundant details and leisurely paces the story, as if readers are walking along with him. Capturing the sights, sounds and smells of the Tremé neighborhood—the red beans and rice, the steamboats along the banks of the Mississippi River—both he and illustrator Bryan Collier bring this New Orleans neighborhood to vivid life. Collier’s kinetic and stylistic mixed-media illustrations use energetic lines and rich colors to bring the music and the people of this community to the page.

The 5 O’Clock Band is an unforgettable journey.

Julie Danielson features authors and illustrators at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast, a children’s literature blog.

“Once upon a time, there was a boy named Paul,” begins the narration of an unusual, vibrant picture book from a Lithuanian writer and illustrator team that quickly veers into the unexpected in the very next sentence. “Wait, that’s not quite right. This story begins in a different way,” adds writer Evelina Daciutè. Daciutè’s lively, meandering narration is just one of the many pleasures of The Fox on the Swing.

This story is indeed about a boy named Paul, who lives in a very tall tree with a father who flies helicopters and a mother who makes mostly orange pottery. Every day Paul walks to the bakery to buy freshly baked rolls for his family’s tea, and on the way home he often encounters a fox on a park swing.

The two become fast friends, although as in most fables, this is a prickly, clever fox. “Being generous is like an ocean,” the fox tells Paul. “Would you like to be a drop in that ocean?” When Paul nods, the fox asks for one of his rolls.

The story is filled with humor and joy, all enhanced by the busy, beautiful collage-style art of Aušra Kiudulaite, which includes a lively cornucopia of helicopters, parades, wild animals, constellations, funny labels and signs on each and every page.

Paul’s storybook life turns upside down when his family moves to a new city, forcing him to leave behind his best friend, Fox. Everything will be better, Paul’s parents promise, but Paul doesn’t see things that way. Happily, an unexpected treat is eventually revealed after the move.

The Fox on the Swing transforms a tender story about friendship and moving into a jubilant, philosophical celebration of unexpected delights. It’s truly a book worth rereading, and new rewards are likely to be discovered each time.

Here’s a challenge for a tired parent: Try to get through the tongue twisters and antics of a very energetic canine in A Dog Named Doug without collapsing into laughter. The first line sets the stage: “Once there was a dog named Doug. Doug liked to dig, but when Doug dug, oh boy, did Doug DIG!” Readers young and old will delight in Doug’s journey, which brings them from the Old West to Hollywood and from the African savannah to the White House. And what world tour would be complete without a visit to Stonehenge? In fact, Doug digs so deep underground that he ends up on the other side of the world. (Where, naturally, he finds himself upside down.)

To enhance Karma Wilson’s clever rhymes, illustrator Matt Myers has used both pictures and inventive graphic design and varied typefaces to keep young readers engaged—and to help preschoolers identify letters, too. On one spread, a tractor falls into the giant “U” in the word “ruts.” On another page, piles of mud become the letter “M.”

And, while Doug’s tale is as rollicking as a real dog energetically excavating a flower bed, A Dog Named Doug cleverly manages to be a bedtime story. After all, any determined digger (whether they have four legs or two) has to rest sometime. And so we follow Doug to bed, where, of course, he dreams of more digging adventures.

In the middle of a city sits a giant fishbowl, the only home a whale named Wednesday has ever known. Like the day of the week, Wednesday is always in the middle of everything, with busy people and traffic constantly circling her. Even the sun, moon and stars circle her every day as she watches the world go by.

But Wednesday discovers that if she leaps high enough out of the water, she can see a calm blue on the horizon; “Her heart leaped, too, when she saw it, though she didn’t know why.” Hoping to catch a glimpse of that marvelous blue once more, Wednesday jumps over and over again. The crowd thinks she is performing tricks, of course, and claps in merriment.

In Whale in a Fishbowl, Troy Howell’s gentle metaphor about animal captivity illustrated in a muted palette by Richard Jones, Wednesday begins to question her existence when a little girl named Piper tells the whale she doesn’t belong in a fishbowl. But where would Wednesday go? “You belong in the sea!” Piper declares. Although Wednesday is uncertain about what a sea might be, she leaps higher than ever before—with an illustration that spills out onto a fold-out page—and causes the fishbowl to topple over. Grays give way to brilliant and bountiful blues as the whale swims out of the city. In a new home, now in the middle of the sea, Wednesday finds her song, and someone else just like her, for the first time. Even the youngest of readers will understand Wednesday’s plight and heartrending need for freedom and companionship.

In this charming double debut by author Casey W. Robinson and illustrator Melissa Larson, an older factory worker named Iver climbs to the roof during his lunch hour. While up there, he eats next to a giant inflatable bear named Ellsworth. Together they gaze out over a hilly northern landscape, and Iver feels content to be exactly where he is.

“Everyone’s going somewhere,” Iver reflects. “We can see the whole world from up here. That’s enough somewhere for me.”

Before he heads back to work, Iver cares for Ellsworth—wiping away streaks of rain, shaking snow from his shoulders, shining his paws. In the fall, Iver “plucks the crunchy leaves that stick to Ellsworth’s tummy.” And, of course, he makes sure the ropes that hold the inflatable bear steady are secure.

Then comes Iver’s retirement. Without Iver there to check on the bear, the ropes get loose and Ellsworth flies up into the air and across the town until he lands on the roof of Iver’s small house.

Young readers may wonder if this is a coincidence or if the bear just knows where he belongs. Ellsworth grins as he and his old friend look out onto their new somewhere together. Larson’s soft pencil and watercolor illustrations complement Robinson’s gentle text. With its heartfelt, endearing characters and unusual setting, Iver & Ellsworth is sure to be a bedtime favorite.