Robin and the Stick (Robin’s World #1)

Two truths slowly converge for a growing child in this developmentally oriented picture book, a sweet series debut from Goodale (A Pocket Full of Rocks). Little Robin, sporting a bright red hood from which a single curl peeks, always carries a stick. One’s for bedtime, others are scattered throughout the house (“One on the piano,// One next to Teddy”), and a jug in the hall holds many more. When a large branch falls across the sidewalk, Robin sees it as the ultimate prize, but it won’t budge, and Mama sets a firm boundary: “It’s only a stick if you can pick it up off the ground.” Mama also tells Robin daily, “Today you are the biggest you’ve ever been.” In comical but deeply empathic vignettes, Robin keeps on tackling the branch, and eventually succeeds—as the child becomes their biggest self yet, wanting becomes doing and the quarry becomes a stick. Through monoprint and oil images, grayscale scenes brightened by Robin’s red hood, and capitals in a custom font, this a quietly wonderful work gets at a child’s growing sense of competency, identity, and domain. Characters’ skin tones reflect the white of the page. Ages 3–6. Agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. (Apr.)