Be My Tidy Buddy? Kiki and Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship by Marie Kondo and Salina Yoon

Kiki the red squirrel has a mania for collecting--pine cones and nuts, of course, but all kinds of other stuff that fit her fancy.

HER COLLECTIONS OF THINGS GREW UNTIL SHE RAN OUT OF PLACES TO PUT THEM.

SHE PACKED HER PINE CONES UNDER THE BED.

SHE PUSHES HER NUTS UNDER THE RUG, AND PILED HER CLOTHES IN THE TUB.

But when her friend Jax the gray owl comes over to play soccer, Kiki can't quite come up with her ball. When Jax suggests they go swimming, her swimsuit is nowhere to be found.

But when the disappointed Jax comes back with a gift the next door, Kiki's front porch looks like an obstacle course, so he just leaves the gift box as close to the door as he can get.

But Kiki finds a book inside the box that shows her how to organize her stuff. First she puts the items that are alike in separate piles. Then, one by one, she packs away only the best things, the ones that "spark" her heart, as the book from Jax told her.

It's TIDY TIME, in Marie Kondo's how-to book, Kiki and Jax: The Life-Changing Magic of Friendship (Crown Books, 2019).  The Theodor Geisel Award-winning illustrator, Salina Yoon's illustrations of a nutsy squirrel who buries her stuff higgledy piggledy around the house and a wise little owl who helps her clear it away will give youngsters an engaging lesson is tidying up in Queen-of-Clean-Up author Kondo's picture book for kids who keep TOO much! Pair this one with Yoon's hit story, Penguin and Pinecone (see more books by Salina Yoon here.)