(2) PS Illustrated by Sonia Sánchez. Gopal and Sanchez celebrate impromptu community-making through music: "One sweet song / for heart and soul. / One sweet song / to make us whole." In a scene recalling balcony performances in places like New York City during the COVID-19 shutdown, someone plays the flute by an open window; a girl listening from the building across the way chimes in with a triangle. This, in turn, spurs a third musician, then a fourth, and so on. More join in with everything from cello, violin, ghatam, and morsing to unconventional instruments that will cause audiences to giggle (pots and pans, bottles filled with dried beans, singing into a remote control "microphone," and even a horn made of a funnel and tube). The rhyming, rhythmic text counts up to ten participants and back down to one, first animating readers and then bringing them back to a quieter, peaceful state that gives this book a dual function as a bedtime story. Colorful painted and digital illustrations show individual lines, an almost scribbly texture, and imperfectly drawn shapes, all of which make the pictures buzz with energy and movement. Even if they didn't personally experience these types of balcony performances, readers will understand the way music-making can bring people together.

Reviewer: Julie Hakim Azzam | Horn Book Magazine Issue: January, 2024

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Supriya Kelkar. A young American desi (someone of South Asian descent living elsewhere) compares the disparate parts of her own cultural makeup. "Pavadais in bright gold colors / Jersey shirts and faded jeans / Swapping, changing, feeling seen... / Which is the color of me?" While the child's voice is initially curious, there's never any hint of self-consciousness, and the tone becomes proud and grateful. The gently rhyming text uses a dynamic refrain ("Finding the sounds of me," "Blending the flavors of me," etc.) to empower cultural identities of all kinds; Kelkar's rich collages, a potpourri of paper, fabric, and other media, are wonderfully suited to this celebration of "blending, merging, taking wing..."

Reviewer: Katrina Hedeen