cover image That’s Not How You Do It!

That’s Not How You Do It!

Ariane Hofmann-Maniyar. Child’s Play, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-84643-929-2

Lucy is a competent, beret-wearing kitten—she’s mastered tricky skills like eating with a fork and playing the xylophone, and she’s way ahead of her peers. “If you didn’t know how to do something, you came to Lucy for help,” writes Hofmann-Maniyar (Ice in the Jungle), showing a long line of animals awaiting assistance with such sticky wickets as blowing bubbles, working a yo-yo, and peeling a banana. Enter Toshi, a panda with his own brand of competence: he eats with chopsticks and does yoga instead of gymnastics—another one of Lucy’s specialties. The narration, previously chipper and sympathetic to Lucy, turns ironic: readers learn that “Toshi’s gymnastics were all wrong,” even as they see him striking an impressive tree pose. Lucy, it appears, is as controlling as she is capable. “That’s not how you do it!” she fumes to herself, before finally screaming it at the top of her lungs. Feeling outshone and irrelevant isn’t fun at any age, but Hofmann-Maniyar’s crisp, pert drawings subtly hold out the promise of a mutually respectful collaboration between these two talented animals. Ages 4–7. (Mar.)