Strangers on the Train: Milo Imagines The World by Matt de la Pena

Milo's husky big sister hurries him onto the subway, eager to get back to taking a selfie and whatever else she is doing on her phone.

Milo looks around at the other passengers, all seemingly absorbed with their thoughts--a bored-looking businessman with briefcase, a young woman in wedding gown, clutching flowers, a boy about his age dressed in a suit and tie, a whiskery guy in slipons and socks frowning over his newspaper. The Sunday subway ride seems to last forever.

Milo's feelings are bouncing around inside him like a well-shaken soda....

Excitement on top of worry, on top of confusion, on top of love...

To stop the feeling, Milo begins to draw in his notebook and wonder about the other people on the train. As the scruffy whiskered guy gets up and rings the bell, Milo pictures him at home with lots of cats and rats as company. He shows the bride going to her wedding and perhaps a trip in a hot-air balloon, and he pictures the boy in the coat and tie entering a castle, complete with drawbridge, butler, and chef with crustless finger sandwiches for him. Milo tugs as his sister to show her his pictures, but she gives him a quick look and elbows him away.

Who hasn't wondered about the lives of nearbypassengers on a plane or subway? But the subjects of Milo's drawings don't exactly follow the lives he creates for them.

When the wedding-dressed woman strides off the train, a band of street performers launches into "Here Comes the Bride" and everyone on the platform cheers.

Milo didn't see that one coming. He looks at the dressed up boy and the boy looks back.

They lock eyes for a few long seconds.

Milo is surprised when the boy and his dad get off at the same stop as Milo's.

He is even more surprised when the boy joins the long line to pass through the metal detector.

Maybe it's not so easy to know what another person's real life is like from looking at them, Milo muses.

And both boys enter a room where women prisoners are meeting with their families, in Matt de la Pena's just published Milo Imagines the World (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2021), where Milo shows his mom the picture he drew just for her, a picture of the whole family together on their front steps, a picture he still wants to be true. In this poignant family story, author Matt de la Pena is again joined by artist Christian Robinson, who illustrated their Caldecott Honor Medal book, Last Stop on Market Street (read review Last Stop on Market Street.)

"Pictures brimming with activity, an endearing main character, and threads for thinking about art, families, and what we see in others make this a book that will hold up to many readings," says School Library Journal.

Cycle of the Seasons: Birdsong by Julie Flett

It's a mucky morning as we pack up the last of our belongings and leave our little home in the city by the sea.

For a child, a move to a different place, leaving friends and relatives and her favorite tree in her window behind, is hard. Katharena doesn't even feel like unpacking her drawing things.

But it is spring, and the new little house is surrounded by early snowdrops all in bloom. Soon her mother sends her to meet their neighbor, an elderly woman named Agnes, who welcomes her and show her own clay pottery and sculptures and garden.

There are berries and flowers and so many of her clay things.

"Your mom says you love to draw," said Agnes.

As summer ripens into fall, Katherena and Agnes become fast friends. They prepare the garden for its winter rest, and Agnes says her bones are as creaky as the bare limbs of trees in the wind. She takes Katherena to her studio and shares the new pot she is making, and shares moon lore, and Katherena shares her Cree Indian name for the changing moon.

But as the geese fly away and autumn sinks into the cold of winter, Agnes is not well, and the girl and her mother make salmon soup and take it to her. And even as spring nears, Agnes has no strength to work her garden, or even to go outside to see summer's harbinger, the snowdrops in bloom. But she does have a last gift to give...

Agnes sends me home with a cup full of bulbs--snowdrop bulbs to plant in the field next autumn.

This is a winter's tale, a gentle story that deals with the cycle of the seasons and the cycle of life as well, Julie Flett's Birdsong (Greystone Books, 2019) chronicles an unlikely friendship of age and youth and the time that that the two share. In Katherena's own words, the narrative is lovely but spare, powerful in what goes unsaid but not unrevealed in words, but revealed in artist Flett's striking illustrations, done in flat outlines against bright white pages, in a palette limited to blacks and browns, which speaks of the rhythms of the seasons and of the heart.

Life goes on in this meaningful book, published to raves from Publishers Weekly, Kirkus Reviews, School Library Journal and Horn Book.

Meet The Creator: MEGA Awesome Notebook by Kevin Moore

A long time ago in a microwave far far away....

Mom! Mom!

A kid wakes up in a silent house. In the kitchen there's a note:

Sorry, sweetie!Had to leave early for work. Lunch is in the fridge.Mom X0XX0

Pulling a slice of cold pizza from the fridge, he put its paper plate down on top of his green notebook and rushing to nuke it, he puts both in the microwave.

A cloud of awesomeness was released into the world.

When the kid recovers, he rushes for school. and when he opens his notebook, he begins to draw a dude he names Dud. And then a dog for Dud. And then another Dud. (They are a pair of palindrome pals!) Ha! Now it's a duel of Duds. The two compete at efforts to erase each other. It's a nasty little battle between the two little duds.

This is war, with a series of characters--the dumpy algebra teacher, a little smart alecky Einstein, devils, dragons, monsters, space cats, aliens, warring medieval fantasy critters, even Mark Twain and Tom Sawyer. Dud #I even creates Little Cretin, who provides rude sounds from several orifices.The Kid thinks it's time to shut down the whole notebook world.

SLAM!

The Kid stuffs his notebook into his backpack and it falls out as he runs down the hall, leaving footprints that say, "You're Not Crazy!" behind him. He runs for the front office to call Mom, who can't leave work to check him out. The school secretary offers him a Tylenol.

But as he trudges to his next class, he meets a girl named Val, who returns his notebook.

"It's hilarious," she says with a shy smile.

Inside the green notebook, Dud has had enough. He finds The Way Out and runs into the creator, who explains the notebook.

"It's where the creator hides his fears. Where no one can see."

And maybe the way to erase those fears is to face them out in the world, where they really live, in Kevin Minor's Mega Awesome Notebook (Schiffer Publishing, 2019), in which the real conflict is working out his fears about his family split-up. Resolving the conflicts inside and outside are one of the difficult tasks in early adolescence. Dealing with divorced parents, awkwardness with a girl, a grouchy math teacher, those can be more dread than dragons and deadly erasers, but maybe if he tells Val about his day....? That may just be the Way Out.

Pencil Me In! Linus, The Little Yellow Pencil by Scott Magoon

THE FAMILY ART SHOW WAS COMING UP, AND ONLY THE ART WITH THE MOST HEART WOULD WIN THE GRAND PRIZE.

Linus, the little yellow pencil, feels on the spot. This year everyone is expecting an entry from him.
But even though Linus is a sharp little guy, he does not work alone. There's a problem with his co-creator, his eraser, Ernie! In fact, when they are working it seems as if he and Ernie just aren't even on the same page!

"YOU CAN'T EVEN DRAW A STICK FIGURE," SAYS ERNIE.

RUBBA-DUBBA-RUBB WENT ERNIE, AND LINUS'S LINE WAS GONE!

Talk about a co-worker who rubs you the wrong way! Ernie the Eraser is keeping Linus' inspirations on the dull side!

And then Linus gets some good advice from a old guy named Smudge, who's clearly been around a while and who seems to know his stuff. He suggests that Linus and Ernie share the job, taking turns and concentrating on the end product, in Scott Magoon's latest, Linus The Little Yellow Pencil (Disney Hyperion, 2019). Magoon continues his mania for puns in this one, and youngsters who appreciate wordplay will relish the tasty double entendres Magoon tosses into his text in this heart-y tale of self worth. Says Booklist, "The narrative is packed with art-related puns ("bristling with envy"; "brush aside"; "drawn to the very edge"; "Go, get that lead out"), and the digitally created illustrations are filled with movement and color."

Purloined Posies! The Case of the Missing Chalk Drawings by Richard Byrne

Out in the school playground, all the chalks are having recess fun drawing flowers.

But when they came back from lunch...

ALL THE FLOWERS WERE GONE!

The chalks draw a blank! Who could have made their flowers disappear? Their teacher, Mrs. Red, makes some big red signs.

DO NOT TOUCH THE FLOWERS!

The chalks draw even more flowers. But when the little chalks come back after story circle time, the flowers are gone AND the fence for the schoolyard seems also to have been erased! Obviously there is a pitiless posy pilferer in the neighborhood. Mrs. Red calls the police.

Sgt. Blue lines up some suspicious-looking characters. None of them seem to have been caught red-handed until Sgt. Blue has them all turn around. One has a chalk-dusted red bottom! Aha!

But the culprit escapes in a cloud of chalk dust! Not to be outdone, Officer Blue has the little chalks prepare a trap--the most colorful drawing of all, one that the evil Eraser cannot resist!

A RAINBOW!

Aha! The suspect soon appears. Sgt. Blue is about to collar the crook. But the Eraser pleads an alibi that all the chalks cannot refuse.

"I'M NOT A ROBBER.

I'M AN ERASER--SO YOU CAN DRAW MORE STUFF!"

Chalks and erasers go together like ying and yang, in Richard Byrne's artsy mystery story, The Case of the Missing Chalk Drawings (Henry Holt and Company, 2018). Author Byrne's well-paced page turns perfectly set up each vignette, with his many-hued, googly-eyed chalks bright against black background pages, and this case is cracked with a solution which suits all. As School Library Journal says, "In addition to being pure fun, the story demonstrates the importance of understanding motives before judging actions."

Line UP! Draw the Line by Kathryn Otoshi

A piece of charcoal in the hands of a small boy becomes the means to adventure.

He first draws a straight line along the ground, and then, growing bold, begins to draw circles and curlicues and circles, as his glee is reflected in the wash of yellow and lilac around him. But in moving left to right, turning around to produce swirls, the charcoal stick flies out of his hand as he backs into---another boy with a drawing stick approaching from page right.

It's a collision! The two boys, reverse images of each other, stare in surprise as the background colors deepen. The second boy picks up the line and trails it above his head like a prize streamer as he runs off page right. The first boy's feet are entangled in the line, and as he falls, he grows angry as the background wash darkens to purple and black.

It's a tug of war! The line breaks.

A crack opens in the ground between the two.

Can the chasm be bridged?

Line is one the primary elements of art, but it also expresses symbolic meaning in Kathryn Otoshi's Draw the Line (Roaring Brook Press, 2017), as a simple line becomes both a division and and then a connection between the two boys who must figure out a way to bridge the break in the line between them.

In this wordless book, artist Otoshi plays with the possible meanings of the line, using color to represent emotion, in a way that young readers will instinctively intuit. A single line tells it all. As Kirkus Reviews says in their starred review, "Otoshi's fluid watercolors are sheer loveliness, surpassed only by her ability to communicate big concepts with no words. A simple, beautiful concept whose reach grows with each rereading."

Art for Art's Sake: Louise Loves Art! by Kelly Light

SO LITTLE TIME, SO MUCH TO DRAW!

Louise loves her art. Spreadeagled on the floor, she dashes off sketch after sketch, as her little brother Arthur watches enviously. Louise can't help holding forth on her passion as she works.

TO BE A GREAT ARTIST, YOU HAVE TO NOTICE EVERYTHING!

EVERY LINE..., EVERY CURVE...

The cat wanders in and suddenly Louise has a new model.

WAIT! HOLD THAT POSE!

As Louise throws all her energy into capturing her model's essential cathood, little Arthur gets his red crayon and draws a pair of red glasses just like the one's his big sister wears. With his little paper scissors he cuts out the glasses and puts them on to look just like Louise.

But Louise is oblivious of her little imitator and declares her cat drawing her piece de resistance! She admires it as she declares it worthy of... The Gallery du Fridge! But first... she letters five signs to tape to the walls to lead the public to to her one-woman show.

THIS
WAY
TO
THE
ART!

But while she's busy, little Art picks up her cat drawing and uses it to cut out a string of paper dolls, giving each figure red glasses just like Louise's. He holds them up proudly for her to see.

"ART!! HOW COULD YOU!!"

But like the artist she is, Louise looks again and really sees Art's artwork.

"OH, ART! I LOVE IT!"

Louise gets it that imitation is the sincerest form of flattery in Kelly Light's sweet sibling story, Louise Loves Art (Balzer and Bray, 2014). The author-illustrator's own artwork is breezily retro, with the look of a 'sixties' cartoon that almost seems to move across the page. Light artfully skirts sentimentality in this tale of a sister and brother who come together in a moment of mutual admiration for art and for each other.

Not mushy-gushy Valentine fare, but a story that celebrates love between brother and sister!