Review_CHILDREN’S
82 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ JULY 29, 2019
A child who identifies as neither girl nor boy
leads a traditional hula performance in Gale and
Song’s picture book (reviewed on this page).Picture Books
Why?
Adam Rex, illus. by Claire Keane. Chronicle,
$17.99 (60p) ISBN 978-1-4521-6863-0
Part origin story, part therapy session,
this high-voltage comedy by Rex (Nothing
Rhymes with Orange) pits a supervillain
against an inquisitive child. Doctor
X-Ray, wearing a lab coat and rocket boots,
crashes through the glass atrium of an
upscale mall. “Go ahead and run, puny
fools!” he taunts. “No one can withstand
the power of Doctor X-Ray!” The mall
empties—all except for a wide-eyed girl
with black pigtails, a stuffed animal, and
a red polka-dotted dress. “Why?” she
asks, as small children will. Her repetitive
query works on Doctor X-Ray like a psy-
chiatrist’s prompts, and his plans and dis-
appointments come tumbling out, each
answer leading to another “Why?” Black-
outlined speech balloons give the spreads
a comic-book vibe as stylish art by Keane
(Love Is) cut between the two roaming the
deserted mall and faded flashbacks to
Doctor X-Ray’s tortured boyhood (“I put
my heart and soul into that yarn store”).
At last, exhausted, Doctor X-Ray has a
moment of insight: “Look at me—I don’t
even rule myself.” Though the self-analysis
sequence is a bit drawn-out, the visual
energy and satisfaction of each page’s
awaiting answer keep this cinema-style
romp hurtling forward. Ages 3–5. (Oct.)The Space Walk
Brian Biggs. Dial, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-
525-55337-3
A selfie is worth a thousand words in
this tribute to the exhilaration of getting
outside and making new friends by Biggs
(What Kind of Car Does a T. Rex Drive?).
It’s boring as all get-out in the space ship,
but not-so-vaguely parental Ground
Control won’t let astronaut Randolph
Witherspoon take a spacewalk until he
eats lunch (brussels sprouts in a pouch),
exercises and tidies, and receives a barrage
of rules (“Dress warmly, don’t forget your
camera, and... don’t talk to strangers”).
Sound familiar? Outside the ship, there’s
much to photograph, and as the story goes
wordless, Randolph meets an alien who’sas much into goofy selfies as he is. (Their
space-wear also shares the same chunky,
adorable dome shape.) Randolph never
technically “talks” to this alien stranger,
but the photographs they take together
help him look forward to a less lonely
tomorrow. Biggs’s digital pictures juxta-
pose the brightly lit, dully safe capsule,
festooned with gizmos, dials, and screens,
against the marvels of space. The land-
scape offers not just a new friend but
also an intergalactic portrait filled with
fluorescent planets of many stripes—and
a few polka dots, too. Ages 3–7. Agent:
Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)A Big Bed for Little Snow
Grace Lin. Little, Brown, $18.99 (40p) ISBN 978-
0-316-47836-6
This companion to A Big Mooncake for
Little Star, for which Lin won a Caldecott
Honor, stars a boy, Little Snow. As his
mother fills his puffy, gray-blue bed with
feathers at winter’s start, she reminds him
that “this bed is for sleeping, not jumping.”
Naturally, the minute she leaves (“Little
Snow listened to Mommy’s footsteps fade
away”) and anytime she is absent, the
child leaps onto his cloudlike bunk.
When he does, “Tiny feathers squeezed
out of his bed and fluttered down.” After
a season’s worth of jumping, Little Snow
springs so high and lands so hard on the
bed that it tears, spilling the feathers. The
next spread shows where all those feathers
end up; though it’s not too hard to guess
where that might be, the revelation
charms (and reveals a glimpse of Little
Snow’s predecessor). Classically drafted
paintings of the child leaping and
bouncing with his stuffed dachshund
convey the joy of release and weightless-
ness. Lin skillfully uses the folded andcreased snowflake shapes of the mother
and child’s matching pajamas to convey
the contours of their bodies underneath,
giving their clothes a wonderfully other-
worldly look. A beguiling contemporary
origin story. Ages 4–8. Agent: Rebecca
Sherman, Writers House. (Oct.)★ Ho‘onani: Hula Warrior
Heather Gale, illus. by Mika Song. Tundra,
$17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-0-7352-6449-6
Ho‘onani, a Hawaiian schoolchild,
identifies not as wahine (girl), or ka ̄ne
(boy), but just as herself (she uses she/her
pronouns). Her parents are proud of her
strength and independence: “She does
what she wants!” her father says. But her
sister Kana rolls her eyes when Ho‘onani
auditions for the traditional hula chant
performance given by the high school
ka ̄ne, and says “How embarrassing!” when
she’s accepted. After working hard to
internalize “the sway and song of story,”
Ho‘onani is chosen as the group’s chant
leader: “When Ho‘onani saw complete
awe and true acceptance, she held her
place. Strong,/ sure,/ and steady.” Ho‘onani
confronts the possibility that the audience
will resist a wahine leader, but in a tri-
umphant conclusion, they acknowledge
her gifts—and so does her sister. Boldly
outlined watercolor and ink artwork by
Song (A Friend for Henry) conveys visual
information with strength that suggests
Ho‘onani’s own. And Gale grounds the
child’s experience, based on a true story, in
Hawaiian traditions, modeling showing
“every person the same unconditional
acceptance and respect.” Ages 4–8. (Oct.)The Love Letter
Anika Aldamuy Denise, illus. by Lucy Ruth
Cummins. HarperCollins, $17.99 (40p)
ISBN 978-0-06-274157-8
“Friend,/ You are a joy, a light,/ a secret
hope..../ Don’t you know/ I love you?” So
reads the letter Hedgehog finds on the
ground one grouchy day. “My word,” he
says, brightening. “Someone loves me.”
Feeling suddenly cheerful, he doesn’t fuss
about things that usually irritate him.
In three intimate vignettes, Cummins
(Truman) shows him losing gracefully,
sharing his lunch, and walking his friend
Bunny home. Then Hedgehog drops the
letter, and Bunny finds it. She’s delighted
that Hedgehog loves her; another trio ofChildren’s/YA
Continued on p. 85