THE SOMEONE NEW

The creators of A Day in the Life
of Marlon Bundo (2018) press another topical hot button.

Replete with twee Capital Letters,
the tale sends Jitterbug the chipmunk skittering from her cozy nest in search
of the Something New that her sensitive tummy tells her has come to the forest.
Along the way she meets friends who share important thoughts she tucks away as
irrelevant but “good information.” The Something turns out to be a Someone, namely
slow-talking Pudding the snail, a refugee from the recently flooded garden over
the hill. Prompted by fear of change, Jitterbug peremptorily orders Pudding to
turn back. But when her less jittery animal neighbors gang up to point out that
she’s being irrational, Jitterbug acknowledges her mistake. Back comes Pudding
(who hadn’t gotten very far anyway) to make a new home and become a Very Good
Friend. In splashy digital watercolors Keller adds at least some flavor to the
precious narrative, placing animated forest creatures with mildly
anthropomorphic postures and expressions into pleasant sylvan surroundings and
strapping a backpack atop Pudding’s brightly striped shell. Jitterbug may judge
the thought that “even though New can be scary, kindness is stronger
than fear” to be “very good information,” but her change of heart at the
shrink-wrapped climax comes with superficial ease.

The grown-ups who buy this will
already, like their offspring, have bought the message. (Picture book. 6-8)