The Giant Orange What-the-What?!

In this playful parable about collaboration, ingenuity, and persistence, a solo debut from Michels (Giraffe and Jackal Are Friends (Again!)), the titular object—a house-size, spectacularly intrusive ball of scribbled orange string—lands suddenly in a young, pale-skinned protagonist’s yard. “It’s a dilemma, a quandary, a pickle, an obstacle, a can of worms” the buoyant narrative voice frets, a cascade of descriptors that capture that sinking feeling that can arrive when problems loom large. But after hauling up a ladder and having a good think atop the tangle, the child hits on a strategy: make the problem smaller. With each push and pull away from the child’s residence, the object shrinks, possibilities grow, and partnerships are born. A squirrel helps navigate the object around a stone wall, and an initially grumpy-looking bear helps manufacture a string border protecting a fallen bird’s nest. Digitally finished monoprint, ink, and collage illustrations lend printmaking textures to the ball’s transformation from burden to tool, as the orange orb becomes both a guide to a sunset vista and a trail leading home. That’s how life works sometimes, suggests this amiable portrait of thinking on one’s feet, by turning a “WHAT NOW?// into a THAT’S HOW!” Ages 4–8. Agent: Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary. (Apr.)