Lean On Me! Nook by Sally Ann Garland

NOOK WAS SMALL AND GENTLE.

SHE LIKED TO SIT WITH HER BACK PRESSED FIRMLY AGAINST SOMETHING SO THAT SHE COULD FEEL SAFE.

Indoors, she chose to sit in corners and in large, pillowy chairs and watch the others play together, and outdoors...

... HER FAVORITE PLACE WAS THE HOLLOW OF AN OLD TREE.

From her comfy spot, Nook watched the other youngsters play alone and with each other. Sometimes they asked her to join them, but she preferred to stay in her safe spot. The others knew that spot was Nook's place.

BUT HER SPIRIT FOLLOWED THE OTHERS WHEN THEY WENT BACK TO PLAY.

But one morning, everything changed. There was a big, grumpy badger sitting in her place against the tree, who snarled out a warning.

"MINE!"

Nook felt terrified, standing all alone, out in the open with nothing around her. But then she heard a strong voice behind her.

"THAT'S NOOK'S PLACE!"

Bear, Fox, Squirrel, and even Mouse stood right behind her, staring at the intruder. Badger refused to budge.

So Squirrel and Fox each took one of Nook's hands and led her off to the middle of the playground to play.

"YOU'RE WITH US!" THEY SAID.

In Sally Ann Garland's sweet story of shyness and friendship, Nook - A Book About Kindness, Inclusion, Confidence, Trust, and Friendship (Sunbird Books, 2021), timid Nook discovers that with friends who "have her back" she is not shy or fearful anymore.

Author-illustrator Garland's theme is a simple one of friendship and safety in numbers, and her appealing artwork, done in textured colored pencil and paint, portrays her timorous but charming little white lop-eared bunny perfectly, a true shrinking violet blooming in the warm light of friendship. It's a hopeful note for all the faint-hearted, which most of us are at some time in our lives, and especially affecting for those retiring preschoolers and primary graders who find it hard to venture right out into the middle of things.