Good Sledding! A Sled for Gabo by Emma Otheguy

It's snowing!

Gabo wipes off the window and sees boys and girls from his new school pulling sleds up the hill and then coasting down, screaming. It looks like fun.

But Gabo has a shortfall in the snow gear department!

GABO DIDN'T HAVE A SLED.

He doesn't have warm wool socks, just cotton ones. He doesn't have snow boots, just sneakers. And his baby pom-pom hat is way too small this year.

"VAMOS A RESOLVER!" SAYS MAMI.

Mami solves the problems one at a time: Four pairs of socks are just as cozy as wool. Plastic bags over his sneakers keep the snow out as well as boots, and Mami's snow hat fits him perfectly when she rolls the brim up. Gabo is all set, except for the sled, that is.

Outside He meets his neighbor Mr. Ramos. He doesn't have a sled, but he invites Gabo in to meet his granddaughter. But Gabo is too shy.

Then Gabo meets his aunt and uncle. His aunt has something for him. She says it's a sled, but it looks like a plastic cafeteria tray to Gabo. He doesn't know what to say or do, until Mr. Ramos' granddaughter, Isa, and her big dog come running toward him.

"CAN I HAVE A TURN ON YOUR SLED?" ISA ASKED.

"I DON'T HAVE A SLED," GABO SAID SADLY."

"OF COURSE YOU DO!" SAID ISA.

She sits down on the tray and coasts to the bottom of the hill, shrieking all the way.

And then, so does Gabo, whooping all the way down, in Emma Otheguy's A Sled for Gabo (Atheneum Books, 2021). It's Gabo's first snow day, sliding downhill with his schoolmates and having his new friend over for dulce de leche as the sun slides down behind the snowy hill.

Ana Ramirez Gonzalez's bright and cheery illustrations and the author's sunny can-do approach look at all the possibilities to tell the story of a happy snowy day and promises many more such days with new friends and new places. Says School Library Journal, "Otheguy's unhurried, lyrical approach to the story's central problems are of a piece with the message that life is constantly presenting opportunities for happiness, if you know how to look for them."

Wishing Well! Carmela Full of Wishes by Matt de la Pena

Today Carmela awoke to candles in her pancakes. Her mom told her, "Go ahead, mija, make a wish."

But Carmela's wish had already come true. She was finally old enough to go with her big brother.

Scootering along behind her brother, Carmela follows past the bus stop and the home improvement store, where her dad used to wait for someone to hire him to work. She spots a seeded dandelion and blows the fluffy floaters away.

"You're supposed to make a wish. Everyone knows that." her brother grouches.

Her brother clearly wishes that she were still too little to go with him, but Carmela just jingles her bracelet to annoy him a little. She holds onto her dandelion stem as she helps her brother wash their clothes at the laundromat, and thinks about her wish. Candy is her first thought, but then she imagines her mother sleeping in one of the many beds in the fancy hotel where she works. It's hard to choose just one best wish. And then, as her brother buys groceries at the bodega, she thinks about her father...

... her dad getting his papers fixed so he could be home.

But then Carmela's scooter wrecks, and her dandelion is crushed. What about her wish?

But her big brother relents and takes her to a field beside the ocean where dandelion parachutes fill the air and float in the wind over the sea.

"Now make your wish!" he says.

Her brother tells her that her wish won't come true if she tells it, and Carmela happily holds it in her heart, in Matt de la Pena's latest picture book, Carmela Full of Wishes (G. P. Putnam's Sons, 2018). Working with the artist Christian Robinson, who won a Caldecott Award along with De la Pena's Newbery Medal in their Last Stop on Market Street (review here), this latest joint effort is a poignant and thoughtful story with restrained but eloquent style. Says School Library Journal, “Carmela’s journey of wishing, waiting, and wanting resonates on many levels."