Sometimes It's Nice to Be Alone

"Sometimes it's nice to be alone," Hest (Billy and Rose: Forever Friends) muses in this book's early lines. "Just you, eating your cookie, alone." Using printmaking techniques, Stead (The Sun Is Late and So Is the Farmer) portrays a child with tan skin, a black ponytail, thick glasses, and a serious expression munching the cookie at a table, a pink elephant stuffy underneath. "But what if a friend pops in?" A page later, the stuffy is gone, but a large, kindly-looking pink elephant pulls out a chair with its trunk: "and there you are, eating your cookie with a friend." The series continues, toggling back and forth between the charms of solitude and the joys of companionship, as the toys seemingly transform into life-size associates. The child somersaults with a whale, "tucking and rolling," and watches the rain in a tree house alongside a giraffe. Hest's playful word use adds charm (about a dinosaur playing in leaves, "sometimes it's nice if a friend comes crunching"), and Stead's animal friends, who often look a little wistful, tap into a primal desire to frolic in perfect safety and abandon, engaging one's private imagination. Ages 4-8. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Jr./Folio Literary. (Feb.)

This is a sweet story of a little girl enjoying simple pleasures. She reads a book, rides a bike, crunches leaves, somersaults in the grass, and more. The refrain normalizes solitude so that it feels cozy instead of lonely—"Just you, reading your book, alone, and the only sound in the world is the whispery sound of you turning pages." But other times, Hest adds, "It's nice when a friend stops by." The friend on each spread is a stuffed animal that the girl imagines as her life-size companion. Stead's captivating illustrations, beautifully rendered against a white backdrop, showcase the virtue of imagination. On each spread where the girl is enjoying her solitude, she looms large in the foreground, but when she is joined by a "friend," she becomes smaller as the world around her expands. It's a lovely thought. VERDICT A celebration sure to delight introverts everywhere, this is a recommended first purchase for all.—Lindsay Loup