Review_CHILDREN’S
74 PUBLISHERS WEEKLY ■ APRIL 6, 2020
A kid takes on the sea in Sima’s latest picture
book (reviewed on this page).Picture Books
I Really Want the Cake
Simon Philip, illus. by Lucia Gaggiotti.
Orchard, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-338-58941-2
“It’s on the table sitting there./ I
cannot help but stop and stare,” says
Philip’s (Be More Bernard) protagonist as
she gazes at an impressively decorated
chocolate cake. She imagines herself and
her canine comrade-in-arms as Wild West
outlaws in a stand-off, eating utensils in
double holsters. But the child’s mother
has posted a sign that leaves no wiggle
room (“YOU MUST NOT EAT THE
CAKE”), and so the duo endeavors to
practice self-control. Graphic designer
Gaggiotti’s boisterous, crayonlike draw-
ings show the girl and dog grumpily
going through the motions, playing
badminton and reading poetry. But it’s
no use—once they sneak a few licks, the
whole cake disappears in rapid order.
Maybe Mom will forgive her if she makes
a replacement—how hard could it be?
This diva of cake snatching commands
every page, with her proclamations of
entitlement (rendered in sprawling hand-
written type), her extensive repertoire of
operatic expressions, and a hairstyle that
seems to have a life of its own—especially
after she’s laid waste to the kitchen. In
more ways than one, she really does take
the cake. Ages 3–5. (May)Ray
Marianna Coppo, trans. from the Italian by
Debbie Bibo. Tundra, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-
0-7352-6577-6
Ray is a globe light bulb in a family’s
storage closet that “goes from here to
there. That’s it.” His only company is a
child who occasionally uses the closet as a
“secret hideout,” a spider named Tom,
and 41 items that Ray has counted many,
many times. Mostly, Ray is left quite
literally in the dark, which, Coppo (Petra)
writes, “is boring if you don’t know how
to fill it.” But when Ray is put into a
lantern and travels with the family on a
camping trip, the world opens up for him
as naïf digitized tempera and pastel draw-
ings reveal a verdant, wooded landscapefilled with flora, fauna, and natural phe-
nomena, including “the biggest light bulb
in the world”—the sun. Readers attached
to fair outcomes may feel indignant when
the “glowing” Ray is resequestered in the
closet following the family’s return home.
But to Coppo, life really is what one makes
of it, and Ray has received an incredible
gift—all the memories and fodder for
imagination that he needs to create a
whole world out of a dim situation. Ages
3–7. (May)★ Grandparents
Chema Heras, trans. from the Spanish by
Elisa Amado, illus. by Rosa Osuna. Greystone
Kids, $17.95 (36p) ISBN 978-1-77164-566-9
This book’s generic title does not hint
at what it actually delivers—a warm-
hearted romance, with a dance party at
the end. Scribbly multimedia spreads by
graphic artist Osuna open on a view of
portly Manuel—Grandfather—sitting in
the dirt of his garden, an inquisitive bird
perched on his head. A passing car broad-
casts an invitation to a dance that night.
His wife, Manuela—Grandmother—is
not enthusiastic: “I’m not flitting from
party to party like a girl anymore.” Rapid-
fire dialogue by Heras charms in Amado’s
natural-sounding translation. Grand-
father coaxes Grandmother with a daisy.
She resists—“I am as ugly as a chicken
with no feathers”—but begins, grudg-
ingly, to primp: “I’m going to hide my
legs. They are as skinny as knitting
needles.” Grandfather’s compliments
pile up cumulatively, “Twelve Days of
Christmas”–style, as quirky drawingsoffer more amusement, like one of
Grandmother laid out on an ironing
board, the better to address her wrinkles.
Grandfather’s boyish charm (“But you
are so pretty... as pretty as the sun!”),
Grandmother’s sweet-tempered vanity,
and their unabashed fondness for one
another make it clear that grandparents
are wholly alive, with their ability to flirt
intact. Ages 3–8. (May)Jules vs. the Ocean
Jessie Sima. Simon & Schuster, $17.99 (48p)
ISBN 978-1-5344-4168-2
When Jules’s big sister bounds into
the ocean, boogie board in tow, Jules
makes plans to impress her via “the
BIGGEST... FANCIEST... MOST
EXCELLENT castle that has ever been
built.” Believing that “Maybe the Ocean
will help!” she starts building right at
the water’s edge. But the sea seems deter-
mined to thwart her; its waves take not
only her castles, but her green-handled
bucket, too. Her sister assures her that
the pathetic fallacy is all in her imagina-
tion (“This happens to everyone”), and
together they collaborate on a giant,
shell-studded free-form castle that meets
all of Jules’s criteria. After the ocean
sends what seems to be the biggest wave
of all crashing into it, the sisters share a
moment of devil-may-care elation, dra-
matically recounting the events to their
mother. Sima (Spencer’s New Pet) fills her
pages with humor: the waves that initially
take out Jules’s castles look comically
sinister, and when the girl loses her
bucket, her prone, face-down expression
of defeat is worthy of Charlie Brown.
The forces of nature and impermanence
may be beyond our control, but Sima
finds the funny in it. Ages 4–8. Agent:
Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (June)★ Together We Grow
Susan Vaught, illus. by Kelly Murphy. S&S/
Wiseman, $17.99 (40p) ISBN 978-1-5344-0586-8
Inviting dialogue about the need for
inclusivity, Vaught (Things Too Huge to
Fix by Saying Sorry) offers a lyrical narra-
tive in concise rhyming couplets that
are fleshed out in dramatic mixed-media
illustrations by Murphy (The Slowest
Book Ever). As dark clouds overtake the
sky, farm animals dash toward a barn to
take refuge from an impending storm:Children’s/YA