(2) PS Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. While hiking, Annabelle and her father discover a bone. "'A bone from an animal?' Annabelle asked." At home they give the bone a good scrub, and Annabelle ties a ribbon around it. She takes "Boney" to the park and pushes it in a swing, and slides down the slide with Boney in her lap. That night she dreams about the deer, bear, or wolf that Boney might have come from, and she wakes up feeling sad. She buries Boney in her yard and recites a poem she creates for the occasion: "The deer and the bear and the wolf are running. And I am running with them." The story closes with Annabelle and a friend going to the park together. Fagan's storytelling is simple but deeply felt. The direct prose, much of it dialogue, and Tolstikova's childlike ­mixed-media illustrations convey the emotional depth of the seemingly small experience and Annabelle's thoughtful nature.

Reviewer: Maeve Visser Knoth | Horn Book Magazine Issue: November, 2022

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. Violet tells a "Little Red Riding Hood"–inspired story with herself and toddler brother as main characters. She dramatically narrates "a journey fraught with danger and peril" as they make their way to a sick neighbor's apartment to deliver soup and cookies. The mixed-media illustrations play along, bringing Violet's vivid storytelling to life in the ordinary apartment-building setting.

Reviewer: Cyrisse Jaffee

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. A cynical narrator explains why a T. rex crashing a birthday party might not be as great as it sounds. The dinosaur's antics will have young readers laughing out loud until the surprisingly sweet ending. Simple and inviting pencil illustrations filled with primary colors and pops of green, created digitally and with watercolor, sit on all-white backgrounds.

Reviewer: Lana Barnes

(4) K-3 Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. A palace cat and a mouse in a neighboring house watch each other curiously. When the mouse sneaks in for a rendezvous, the surprised cat falls from the tower and moves into the house; the two continue to observe each other from their new positions. The unresolved titular question may start discussion, but this picture book, with grayscale graphite and ink-wash art, is a bit too oblique.

Reviewer: Miriam Lang Budin

(3) K-3 Illustrated by Dasha Tolstikova. Book--blue and personified with a human face--gets a humiliating mud bath courtesy of its owner's dog. Fortunately, the owner has an idea that makes Book happy and also explains The Jacket's title and cover (two eyes looking through cut-out holes set on ostensibly hand-decorated yellow paper). This original, turn-lemons-into-lemonade-themed offering concludes with steps for making a book jacket.

Reviewer: Nell Beram