Hopscotch

June 1, 2023
Life moves forward, sometimes back. Ophelia, narrating in first-person present tense, loves Jackson, a neighbor's dog who, attached to a clothesline, runs back and forth each day. When he disappears, heartbroken Ophelia draws a "magic hopscotch" grid on the ground, hopping on it forward and backward and wishing for his return. Ophelia and family, who "move all the time," leave because Dad needs to look for a new job. Outside their dilapidated new cabin, imaginative Ophelia spies giant rabbits and "crow-witches." On the first day of school, Ophelia encounters an "ogre" (the crossing guard) and a brown-skinned "fairy princess" (the teacher) who speak French, which Ophelia doesn't understand. Ever mindful Ophelia draws Jackson's portrait and creates a hopscotch grid on which everyone plays. That night, while dreaming, Ophelia is able, at last, to bid Jackson "au revoir." After another move, far from the scary creatures, Ophelia's language skills blossom, and the child soars, confident that "I will learn to fly!" This poignant story is about taking tentative first steps toward independence. The hopscotch drawings are artful but vague metaphors for life's shifting fortunes; they suggest one moves both forward and backward along life's path. This lofty notion, also conveyed through Jackson's movements and the family's frequent address changes, may go over kids' heads, though the cheery, stylized illustrations are lively, delicate, and airy. The protagonist has light skin; classmates are diverse. (This book was reviewed digitally.) Gentle encouragement to embrace life's inevitable changes. (Picture book. 4-7)

COPYRIGHT(2023) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 1, 2023
Preschool-Grade 1 Despite Ophelia's protests, her family moves to a new town. Her mother walks her to school for the first time and tries to boost her spirits by saying that she'll learn reading, writing, and counting. Ophelia asks whether she'll learn how to fly or become invisible or find the dog who lived next door to her old home. Her mother replies, "You might not learn all that on the first day." Ophelia is baffled by her classroom. Everyone is speaking French, which she doesn't understand. Initially she hides, but the teacher is kind. Ophelia enjoys singing like a crow ("Caw! Caw! Caw!") and, at recess, drawing a giant hopscotch game, where other kids join her. Inspired by events in Gay's childhood and told from Ophelia's viewpoint, the narrative and expressive illustrations, created with pencil, crayon, watercolor, and acrylic paint, make clear that although Ophelia feels anxious about this new experience and isolated in her classroom, she quickly adapts and comes to love school. An endearing, reassuring picture book for kids facing their own first-day-of-school jitters.

COPYRIGHT(2023) Booklist, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

June 12, 2023
The child who narrates this dreamlike telling begins the story focused on a beloved dog named Jackson who’s tied to a clothesline in the neighbor’s garden. The child envisions freeing Jackson (“All I need is a long ladder”), until one day the pooch disappears; only his collar remains. The emotional loss (“I will wait for him forever”) pervades what follows, as the child moves to a new town (“Jackson will never, ever find me!”) and enters a new landscape and school. Gay (the Stella and Sam series) conveys with perceptive power a contrast between the anxious fantasy of the child’s world (“Out of nowhere... a huge ogre appears”) and the reality of an adult’s (“Say hello to the crossing guard, Ophelia”). Memories of Jackson persist until at last the child is able to tell him “au revoir.” Sweetly styled watercolor, acrylic, wax crayon, and pencil images temper the story’s moments of loss, centering figures of varied skin tones that look like diminutive toys, while Gay’s writing zeroes in on the way the child, whose skin tone reflects the white of the book’s paper, uses the power they have to cope with change (“I draw an extra-long giant magic hopscotch”). Ages 3–6.