A Happy Place
Britta Teckentrup. Tiger Tales, $18.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-66430-039-2
The wonders of nighttime await a brown-skinned child in a cozy hat who responds to a star’s invitation: “Follow me.../ and I will help you find a happy place.” As the child follows the star’s repeated “Let’s go” outdoors, fields of flowers wave, a river glimmers, and a forest beckons under a brilliant full moon. Die-cut openings soon reveal a growing group of animal companions—a “tippytoed/ squirrel,” a fox, a hare, two stoats— who gather to “dance/ and sing/ in the light/ of the moon/ together.” Next, they depart, leaving child and star alone once more: “just/ you and me,/ embracing the/ world.” Viewed through greenery, as if in secret, the child is seen reaching, arms wide, the star at the tip of one hand, before returning home. Spreads with a cut-out window view the child safe in bed with the star guardian outside: “I will watch over you, sleeping peacefully.” For this dreamy fantasy, Teckentrup (My Little Book of Big Questions) fuses imagination, natural beauty, and a sense of escape to create a heady mix that presents evening as a place of security and wonder. Ages 3–7. (Feb.)
“I was embraced by silence.” Then a toofriendly chum crashes this quiet refuge. Though conflict is expected, visually rich fantasy sequences show the newcomer respecting the narrator’s boundaries, transfixed first by story retellings, then by the protagonist’s own tales. In the quiet, the narrator discovers, one can hear one’s own voice—and others listen when they speak their truth—following an inspiring, unexpected interior journey. Protagonists read as East Asian. Ages 4–8. Agent: Angharad Kowal Stannus, Kowal Stannus. (Feb.)