Facing Fears: Lionheart by Richard Collingridge

THERE CAN'T BE.

THERE CAN'T BE.

THERE IS NO SUCH THING AS MONSTERS.

BUT WHAT'S THAT SOUND?

Things that go bump in the night! Anyone would be worried. And Richard, even in his lion pajamas and maned sleeping cap, can't help being scared.

He snatches up his plush toy Lionheart and runs and runs and runs.

His flight takes him through streets and over hills and into tall woods, dropping his Lionheart along the way, until he finds himself into fantasy forest with magical animals.

SOME MEAN, SOME HAIRY.

SOME SWEET, SOME SCARY.

Realizing that he's lost his Lionheart, Richard turns and goes back his own track, until he runs right into an enormous lion. He stands his ground and tilts his head back to look at the lion's face--and recognizes him.

IT WAS LIONHEART!

BUT HE WASN'T A TOY ANYMORE.

With his faithful companion beside him, Richard is not scared. He is Richard the Lionhearted himself!

And Richard ROARS in the face of fear and finds himself back home, safe in bed, with his Lionheart still beside him.

Richard Collingridge's lovely new picture book, Lionheart (Scholastic Press, 2015) takes a walk on the wild side to face up to all those scary thoughts that come to kids (and adults, too) in the dark of the night. Collingridge's language is lyrical, but his lush illustrations lift his story above the usual and into surreal fantastical scenes, with lost cities of ancient Mayan temples in a mythical woodland landscape of the mind. Some have compared this story to Maurice Sendak's Where the Wild Things Are, and they are similar in their confrontation of the teeming emotions of the subconscious, but whereas Max faced down his own anger, Richard wins the fight with his own irrational fears, just in time for sleep and what we know will be sweet dreams this time.

Come Fly With Me! Gretchen Over the Beach by R. W. Alley

ONE BEACH DAY, GRETCHEN'S BROTHERS AND SISTER RUSHED DOWN TO THE WATER.

GRETCHEN CRIED, "WAIT UP!"

BUT NO ONE LISTENED.

Annabelle, Clark, and Mitchell shuck their shirts and with flippers, surf board, and dinosaur floatie, they hit the surf.

Little Gretchen trails behind, burdened by her flip-flops, beach towel, and a sand bucket with a busted handle that dumps her four roly-polys into the sand. No one listens to her plea for help her taking her roly-polys down to the water.

Well, phooey on them! Gretchen plops down by a tidal pool and starts to mold a sand castle when something amazing happens!

GRETCHEN'S SPORTY NEW HAT WITH THE FANCY RIBBON FLEW AWAY WITH THE BREEZE.

But Gretchen manages to grab the trailing ribbon and her roly-polys follow suit. Scrambling inside the hat, they float higher and higher. Gretchen orders the breeze to lift them to the clouds.

Gretchen goes for a dip in the wispy clouds until she drifts to a small island cloud. But alas, the hat with the four roly-polys sails on and on into a cloud, the ribbon still wafting behind. Thinking fast, Gretchen hails a passing seagull and surfs on his back toward her missing hat,  using it as a parachute to float her and the rolys safely down to the scene of her sand castle, just as her siblings stagger out of the surf to the umbrella where dad is unpacking snacks. Oblivious of her airborne adventures, big brother Clark chastises her for losing her fancy ribbon from the hat.

SHE WASN'T EVEN WORRIED ABOUT HER RIBBON.

And why should she be, when overhead there's a helpful seagull doing a flyover to return the ribbon, in R. W. Alley's Gretchen Over the Beach (Houghton Mifflin Clarion, 2016). Big brothers and sisters sometimes leave their youngest sibling behind, but the resourceful Gretchen has the best adventure of all in this sunny story of the power of fanciful thinking.

Part of a set of four forthcoming seaside stories, this one stars a resilient little heroine who imagines a way to catch a wave without hitting the water. Alley's artwork is altogether endearing, with ink-and-watercolor illustrations in watery pastel palette, set clearly somewhere on the northeastern coast, as evidenced by the weathered pink frame beach house, stone walls, and fir trees in the landscape fronting the yellow-brown sands. Only the faces and stick arms and legs of the roly-polys reveal that Gretchen has a mind of her own, a girl for whom a day at the beach has a little something extra.

Snow Magic: Outside by Deirdre Gill

OUTSIDE, THE SNOW FALLS SILENTLY ON THE HOUSE.

INSIDE, A BOY HAS NOTHING TO DO.

His toy dragon mounts an attack on his brother, who sits immobile in front of a screen, oblivious to red plush fantasies.

So the boy suits up in coat, tall boots, and scarf and leaves him behind.

He steps outside... into a different world, and on the bottom step turns around and falls backward...

PLOOF!

HE SINKS INTO THE SOFT SNOW.

Looking up at the sky, with just a few wispy clouds, he sees in them the shape of an angel, and makes his own angel in the snow. He knocks on the window and writes on the frosty glass, "Come outside," but his brother is lost in a game on another screen.

SO THE BOY BEGINS TO ROLL A LITTLE CLUMP OF SNOW.

And when the snowball is taller than he is, he sculpts a snow creature.

The snow creature and the boy regard each other seriously and then they begin to build...

UNTIL,

THE CASTLE IS PERFECT.

A castle calls for a dragon, and waving goodbye to the snow creature on the ground, the boy mounts the dragon's back and soars, over the trees, over his house, and beyond the village, which grows tiny below him as the sun begins to set.

Then it is time to leave his snow dragon and head back inside, except... there is his brother, finally in his parka and boots and ready to go out, and together by starlight the boys

PLAY OUTSIDE.

Not even the most jaded adult commuter can miss the magic of a new-snow morning, all angles softened and all the drab colors of winter vanquished beneath sparkling white. Deirdre Gill's debut book, Outside (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2014). forthcoming today, takes the reader outside, outside the house, yes, but also outside the usual world to a place where trees and snowmen become magical beings and even a sunset dragon offers a flight above the everyday world. Gill's narration is simple, set against her illustrations, done in retro style and soft pastels, the grays, blues, and whites of the snow, the soft green of the gingerbread-trimmed farmhouse, and the dragon's-breath red and orange glow of the dragon that evoke everychild's dream of a snowy day. Possibly the best snow book of the year, this one is perfect for reading alone or pairing with the classics, Ezra Jack Keats' The Snowy Day or Raymond Briggs' The Snowman.

Spot-On Playdate: Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad by David Soman

"I CAN'T WAIT!" YELLS LULU.

"IT'S THE FIRST OFFICIAL BUG SQUAD PLAYDATE." LADYBUG GIRL KNOWS IT'S GOING TO BE PERFECT!

Hostess Ladybug Girl has planned everything to make the Bug Squad have a day to remember. And when they arrive--Butterfly Boy Sam, Dragonfly Girl Marley, and Butterfly Girl Kiki--all are in costume as their super alter egos, with wings and capes and other accoutrements of bugdom in place. Lulu, with her faithful Bassett hound Bingo in tow, takes her friends into her favorite place outdoors and launches into her carefully structured playdate plans. First they must demonstrate their special Bug Squad powers, which they all do with considerable elan. Next on Lulu's agenda is artwork--each member must draw their self-portraits in character as Bug Squad heroes.

Then Mama comes down into Lulu's special grove with the piece de resistance, chocolate cupcakes with a candle for each one to blow out. Ladybug Girl has even that activity already choreographed in her imagination:

"NOW," SAID LULU, "WHEN I COUNT TO THREE, WE ALL HAVE TO BLOW OUT OUR CANDLES AT THE VERY SAME TIME."

Sam and Marley follow through on cue, but Kiki's candle only flickers and then flames back up.
Without thinking, Ladybug Girl leans over and with a strong puff, Kiki's candle is out, too. But then she sees that while Sam is already demolishing his cupcake, Kiki isn't eating.

"YOU BLEW OUT MY CANDLE!" SHE SAYS

"BUT I WAS ONLY TRYING TO HELP! YOU DIDN'T BLOW YOUR CANDLE OUT AT THE RIGHT TIME." LADYBUG GIRL INSISTS.

"WE DON'T HAVE TO DO IT YOUR WAY! I WAS MAKING UP MY OWN WISH."

Suddenly Ladybug Girl has an insight. Just because she has an plan for a perfect playdate, her friends may have their own ideas that deserve respect, too.

In David Soman's and Jacky Davis' latest collaboration, Ladybug Girl and the Bug Squad (Dial Books, 2011), Lulu learns that too much control doesn't make for good friendships. This series, which pointedly specializes in imaginative outdoor activities, hits the right spot here in a simple lesson in giving friends space to be themselves in a relationship, an important theme for the preschool reader presented in an easy-going and familiar format.