cover image That’s (Not) Mine

That’s (Not) Mine

Anna Kang, illus. by Christopher Weyant. Amazon/Two Lions, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-1-4778-2639-3

Told entirely through (increasingly irate) dialogue, Kang and Weyant’s follow-up to You Are (Not) Small, brings back the purple and orange bearlike creatures from that book, who are now fighting over ownership of a chair. “I was sitting in it before,” says the purple one. “I’m sitting in it now,” responds the other. Using distraction (a spinning, zooming swivel chair) and dirty tricks (a tickle-inducing feather), the animals wrest control of the chair from the other, before giving up to play together. Kang’s stripped-down dialogue and Weyant’s exuberant cartoons tap into the core of their characters’ emotions in a story that highlights the foolishness of fighting when there’s fun to be had. Ages 2–7. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Sept.)