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.

Where There's a Will, There's a Way: Shy Willow by Cat Min

THERE WAS ONCE A RABBIT NAMED WILLOW.

WILLOW DIDN'T LIKE BEING OUTSIDE.

There were cars speeding by and soccer balls to dodge out there. But one day something novel happened inside: a blue envelope slipped through the mail slot into her house. Willow read the letter.

Dear Moon,

It's my Mom's birthday tomorrow. If you're not too busy, could you shine your brightest at midnight?

(Signed) Theo in the purple house on Eris Street.

It was a very sweet request, but Willow knew that someone was going to have to make a personal delivery of the letter. Who? And how?

WILLOW COULDN'T DO IT. ...COULD SHE?

She tries jumping with her strong rabbity legs, but falls far short. She climbs a tree, she hitches a ride on the back of a bird, but all those efforts, er, fall short.

But with a little storybook magic, Willow finds a way to deliver Theo's letter, and that night at midnight... a bright and full Moon comes down and shines right over Theo's house.

THEO AND HIS MOM SEE THE MOON!

Employing soft, wispy mixed media, Min creates gentle scenes give a dreamy quality that befits this tale of courage and empathy with a stranger that brings a new friendship.

Where there's a will, there's ... Willow! in Cat Min's brand-new Shy Willow (Levine Querido, 2021), a gentle fantasy with illustrations striking enough to make this gentle story a moving read-aloud and a message that venturing forth into the world to help someone is well-worth the telling in this self-absorbed world. A special story for a special child.

Says Publishers Weekly, "Employing watercolor and colored pencil, Min creates gentle scenes—the most striking of which are wordless—that radiate with hints of sunset pink, lending a luminous quality that befits this earnest tale of bravery begetting self-realization."

Love's Labour Lost! Mirabel's Missing Valentines by Janet Lawler

Mirabel was very shy.
She'd always been that way.
She trembled at the thought of
giving valentines away.

Still, little mouse girl Mirabel hand-colors her modest little missives, cutting out red hearts and carefully printing good wishes on them. Stashing them carefully in her schoolbag, she spends a restless night worrying about approaching her classmates at school. She doesn't want to go, and she's moving rather slow. But at last she's on her way.

But unknown to Mirabel, there is a hole in her bag, and one by one her Valentines slip out and blow away in the brisk breeze.

But even unintended random acts of kindness have consequences. Each card finds someone who needs it. A lonely old woman whose mailbox is empty smiles at the heart-y card. A construction worker finds a red card with a kind sentiment. One finds its way into a baby buggy pushed by a dutiful dad. Even a garbage man, surrounded by the stinky smell, finds a card that wishes him well.

But then Mirabel discovers that her bag is empty:

"I've lost my Valentines!!" she cried aloud.

The card recipients have a moment of truth.

They hurried up to Mirabel.
"Your cards have made us smile.
Thanks for sharing them with us,
if only for a while."

Seeing how her Valentines have unintentionally brought happiness to their finders, Marabel gets it: Valentine's Day is not about her. It's all about giving. All's well that ends well, with Mirabel enjoying exchanging cards at school and returning home with more heart-filled cards than she gave away, in Janet Lawler's Mirabel's Missing Valentines (Sterling Books, 2019).

Adults forget what an angst-filled day at school Valentine's Day can be. Kids worry that they won't get any Valentines, or that they won't get one from a special person. And for the truly shy, even the act of giving Valentines is fraught with anxiety. But bashful Mirabel learns a little lesson about what giving--and receiving--means in a heart-warming rhyming story with an understated theme of what this overblown and sometimes silly holiday still says about the art of giving.