Long Live The Queen! Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) by Bethanie Deeney Murguia

Zoe loves her room, especially at bedtime.

Every night, Mama gives her a kiss and turns off the light.

Zoe turns it right back on again.

In her room after bedtime, Zoe is Queen. She builds kingdoms, explores strange lands, entertains her royal court, Teddy bear and all, for tea, and stargazes through her special window on the heavens. It's Zoe's very own realm.

But one fateful day Mama delivers a decree that dethrones Zoe and deprives her of her rule over her room.

"Zoe, it's time for Addie to move out of Mama and Papa's room.  She's going to be your roommate."

Suddenly Zoe's room is not her room anymore. Addie's crib goes right where Zoe's royal tea table has always been. With a toddler in the room, lights out means LIGHTS OUT! No more nighttime revels in her kingdom for Queen Zoe. No royal tea parties and no more nocturnal explorations.  And when her little sister lets out a loud WAAAA!  in the middle of the night, Zoe suspects why Mama and Papa were only too happy for Addie to graduate to being her roommate.

Deposed Queen Zoe is miffed at her demotion from her castle and kingdom--until one night a storm rolls through, with lots of lightning and thunderboomers crashing.   Zoe is full of spunk and ginger, but not too independent to mind having a sister as company on a dark and stormy night, in Bethanie Murguia's  brand-new Zoe's Room (No Sisters Allowed) (Scholastic, 2013). Murguia's comic and assertive illustrations of the strong-minded Zoe are scintillating in a story that will resonate with many an older brother or sister forced to cohabitate with a younger sibling. "Murguia's dark blue washes set the quiet night tone, and Zoe's abundant curiosity shines from the top of her crown to the bottom of her stretched tippy-toes," reports Kirkus Reviews.

Pair this one with Zoe's hilarious debut book, Zoe Gets Ready for a double dose of Zoe-styled pizazz. (See my review here.)