Good Morning, Morning!

A lyrical ode from Myers (Not Little) and Mann (Climbing the Volcano) celebrates wonder and autonomy amid the natural world. “The sky is just thinking about daytime,” when a pale-skinned, dark-haired youth, barefoot and dressed in pink and red striped pajamas, slips outside with a wide-eyed black cat. Graphite and digital illustrations have a dense, chalked quality as the child narrator next wanders from a porch through a lawn where spider webs “sag like flat, gray clouds” and into a grove of trees, where the small figure moves confidently amid towering trunks and cool shadows. After settling into their “sitting spot:/ a stone curved just for me,” the figure looks up with a gentle smile that may create a flutter of recognition—is the reader being invited in, or is the child simply savoring the moment? The sunlight breaks through trees, the child clambers atop the stone and greets the day with arms stretched wide, then runs off to join their family, who now appears on the back porch—trading dawn’s private, footloose magic for the warmth and familiarity of home, and subtly signaling that a shared day with others has begun, for both character and audience. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Apr.)