New Horizons! How Do You Do? by Larissa Theule

The day was hot.

The day before had been hot. And the day before that. And the day before that.

When one is all the time hot ... days grow long and the world small.

Water Buffalo and Crane are hot and their world is down to the size of the fly which Buffalo swats with his tail and Crane snaps at with his long beak.

That's about it, until...

"How do you do?" said a goat.

Goat is different. He seems to be dancing--in his own personal rain shower.

Water Buffalo and Crane have a sudden change of view. Crane does a little shimmy dance.

Crane gasped. "That's so lovely."

Water Buffalo and Crane forget that they are hot. They dance among the trees and over fields, following Goat through the sunshine, until, as suddenly as he came, Goat runs away, out of sight.

But Water Buffalo and Crane feel different. They see other animals and a landscape that await them.

"Meeting someone new makes the world feel not so--"

"--Hot," said Water Buffalo.

Sometimes making a cool new friend can expand your horizons. Things look different, in Larissa Theule's How Do You Do? (Bloomsbury Books, 2019). Author Larissa Theule uses the trope of the cool, cleansing shower to show the revitalizing difference that new friends and new horizons can bring to life. Artist Gianna Marino's lovely gouache illustrations carry out the theme of revitalization in the way we see the world. Says Kirkus Reviews, "“The story is serious about its shift from glum to optimistic, but the background colors and the animals' humorous expressions keep it light throughout--anyone who's needed this kind of intervention will relate.”