Gift & Box

K-Gr 3--Grandma enjoys sending presents to her granddaughter Sophia almost as much as the girl loves receiving them. The woman carefully wraps the latest gift and places it in a cardboard box before going to the post office to mail it. The two parcels, personified, take their jobs seriously: "Gift's purpose was to delight. Box's purpose was to protect." The journey to Sophia includes traveling on a post office trolley, a mail truck, a ship (where both Gift and Box deal with seasickness) and a conveyor belt before being delivered to Sophia's apartment house. With digital assistance, Magro's detailed pictures, placed on pure white backgrounds, showcase inks, crayons, handmade stamps, and paper collage with plenty of textures, patterns, and colors to intrigue readers. Both Gift and Box have friendly, expressive faces with googly-eyes and wrapping tape that depicts noses. In one illustration, readers glimpse what Gift sees as it peeks out from an oval opening in Box. After receiving her exciting delivery, Sophia uses her imagination and recycles Box in a manner that shortens the distance between her grandmother and herself. VERDICT Everyone likes receiving packages, and young readers will learn how one box travels to its destination while anticipating what surprise is in store for Sophia.--Maryann H. Owen