Her Muddy Majesty of Muck

Feeling like “tangled-up electrical wires” after her sullen older brother Shen barely acknowledges her at school pickup, young Yuki impulsively throws a pair of house keys down a manhole, launching the fantastical journey at the core of this deeply empathic picture book. Yuki heads underground to find the keys, descending a precarious ladder into a world where difficult emotions take physical forms. Within the underground realm, depicted in surreal mixed-media illustrations, she meets Her Muddy Majesty, a towering blob who grows with the presence of negativity, and the Boogers, small yucky beings who “love making people feel terrible.” Yuki almost persuades herself that she belongs there, until she spots an object of Shen’s in a repository of belongings discarded in moments of anger. And when Shen finds her and gently shakes her from her reverie, something shifts. They emerge together, head home to clean up—and somehow, Yuki feels cared for inside, too. In this Labyrinth-like work, Alemagna (Pepper and Me) uses fantasy not to escape negative feelings but to make them tangible—and offer hope that tangled wires can finally be smoothed. Ages 5–8. (Mar.)