Small Things Mended

Though his backstory is left unspecified, apparently middle-aged Cecil lives alone with a dog and framed images of an absent loved one. When he adjusts a broken pocket watch for young neighbor Lily, he begins to recall how satisfying he finds fixing things, and soon makes a sign: "Cecil's Repair Shop/ Small Things Mended." After a child named Eleanor brings him Daisy, a stuffed elephant that's missing a button eye, Cecil says, "He needs his eye fixed.... I know something about that" while pointing to himself. But Eleanor says that Daisy has a broken heart, and Cecil soon forms an emotional bond with the animal, which sits at his table and reminds him of the "warm feeling" that guests bring. Before long, Cecil renews his garden in order to invite neighbors to share its bounty. "A broken heart needs friends," Cecil tells Eleanor in this heartwarming story, in which Robinson's straightforward narration and Whitesides's softly tinted, painting-like spreads underscore the role of community in healing. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4-8. (Mar.)