Shrinking Violet

Seemingly pint-size worries—spiders, night sounds—make a child literally shrink in this polished picture book from Snyder (The Book of Candles), writing in blank verse tercets, and Pham (The Man Who Didn’t Like Animals), working in jewel-toned gouache. Young Violet, depicted with pale skin and flowing brown hair, lives a seemingly blissful life in a cliffside castle with golden-headed Bird, who provides emotional constancy. But when Bird’s “CHIRRUP, CHIRRUP” awakens her one night, he’s nowhere to be seen, and Violet ventures into darkness, her fright rendering her “a thimble of a girl.” Finding Bird wounded and in peril triggers a new emotion—“a flash of fire,/ a thrumming heart”—and with it a transformation. The book’s orientation turns vertical and the artwork goes phosphorescent as, in a fury, “Violet GREW./ Quick as a lick, she was a cat, a bear!/ Violet was the tallest tree in the forest.” Danger routed, she self-soothes (“She imagined warm toast/ with a pat of butter/ until she was herself again”) and carries Bird home. Violet hasn’t banished fear permanently, but she now knows it’s all right for it to ebb and flow, vividly assuring readers that being brave doesn’t mean eliminating fear. Ages 5–8. Author’s agent: Tina Dubois, ICM Partners. Illustrator’s agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (Mar.)