A Trip Around the Sun (Haylee and Comet #2)

Identical in tone to predecessor Haylee and Comet (2021), this sequel effectively melds Frog and Toad–esque truisms about friendship with brilliant full-color art. Each story ends with a coda that offers an element of nonfiction or gives the duo a chance to reflect. 

Gr 1-4--"Change is hard." So observes Comet after watching a caterpillar turn into a moth. Haylee, a young white girl, and her pal, an anthropomorphic comet, discuss the nature of change across the book's three stories. In the other stories, they come across a litter of stray kittens and compare the life cycles of different plants and animals. Haylee and Comet's friendship serves as a welcome vehicle for exploring different forms of internal and external change and growth. Studying change in nature does not eliminate Comet's worries and uncertainty over their own future. Nonetheless, the friends' conversations, play, and discoveries lead them to gratitude for each other's presence. They make peace with how the facts of life can only determine so much about a person--personality traits and individual choices play a role, too. Marcero's deeply saturated, loose-lined, rich artwork is as gentle and calm as an afternoon enjoying snow cones. VERDICT This thoughtful, relatable duo will give young readers lots to ponder, both about themselves and the minor miracles happening all around them.--Thomas Maluck, Richland Lib., SC