Something for You

A bighearted maximalist offers a minimalistic gift in Mylie’s picture book debut.When a mouse in an orange jacket drops a cake by a friend’s house (“I’ve got something”) and discovers her tucked in and ailing (“Oh no! You’ve got something, too”), he tends to her with care. And after making tea, opening the window, and putting on some Chopin nocturnes, he promises a return visit—and a gift. Tender, softly colored ink-and-wash snapshots with a classic feel show the mouse setting off on a search. He wanders through a pebble- and garbage-strewn path (where he fills his pockets with blooms, “some for me, some for you”), through a drainpipe (“this is mine, too,” he notes, hefting a shell to his ear), and hiking up a rocky hill. There, he finds and wrestles free an enormous purple thistle: “This will be just for you.” An unexpected storm steals the blooms away, and he returns to his pal, despondent, in the rain: “nothing for me,/ nothing for you.” But his friend—reading Abel’s Island in bed when he arrives—suggests that friendship requires little more than “us.” An affectionate tale of friendship. Ages 3–6. (Nov.)