Painting the Sky with Love: A Celebration of Love and Community

It’s raining hearts in this gladdening work featuring a young person who “painted the sky with love.” The first ripples begin when a child portrayed with light brown skin arrives at a city park and initiates play with others, first brushing a rainbowlike ribbon of color overhead alongside red hearts that “flitted and twirled and fell in the air.” Ambling through the park’s green meadows, pathways, and zoo, the child observes a trio of musicians and admires ladybugs, birds, and clouds before heading home to a content and peaceful bedtime tuck-in. As the youth spreads kindness, Haque’s envisaging text (“Hearts dropped on trains and muffled their sound”) and Gardel’s loosely rendered portraits deliver the message that putting love into the world yields an enormous return. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 2–5. (Nov.)