Lulu & Pip

The friendship between a girl and her one-of-a-kind cloth doll again takes center stage in this companion story to 2011’s Kiki & Coco in Paris. Rausser’s gorgeous full-bleed photography drives the story, which centers on a camping trip outside the city that Lulu calls home. Between the pale blue classic Mustang that Lulu and her (unseen) mother drive, the carefully constructed casualness of their campsite (included a canvas tepee, vintage cooler, and rubber tires arranged just so), and the array of outfits at Lulu’s disposal, readers could easily mistake the book for a catalog of high-end children’s apparel. Regardless, Lulu’s life is instantly enviable, even during a moment of alarm when she and Pip are briefly lost in the woods. Created by Jess Brown (who also crafted Coco in the previous book), Pip has a lanky cloth body, a crown of red hair, and wide-set stitched eyes. She and Lulu are inseparable, even in the water—it just means a quick “dry in the warm mountain sun” afterward for the doll, strung up on a clothesline between towels and a bathing suit. Ages 4–8. (May)