48 Grasshopper Estates

January 15, 2021
A girl spreads cheer through her apartment building, then finds a new friend who's just right for her. Sicily Bridges, a brown-skinned girl with puffy hair, can "make almost anything": a snack, a musical instrument, a dragon, a boat. Sicily's mum leaves early for work; as the smell of Mrs. Rubenstein's oatmeal wafts in, Sicily sits in bed jotting down ideas for inventions in her journal. When Mrs. Rubenstein, a gray-haired White woman, comes knocking and asks what Sicily will make today, Sicily decides each of her inventions would be better with a friend, so she adds "a friend" to her list. On a wordless spread, Sicily collects items from the recycling room and giveaway boxes in the hall, then returns to her apartment--without noticing the Asian boy who is also gathering supplies. Sicily makes a bunch of "friends" with her finds while the boy, pictured on alternate pages or in the same view, makes a large rocket ship that he dangles out his window. While Sicily visits neighbors, several of whom are elderly, offering her creations to them, the boy's project breaks. The children discover each other just in time to fix his "blaster-offer" together. De Waal's rhythmic prose and cyclical storytelling are delightful, and Medina's energetic characters and warm palette are charming. Though a few of the visually split scenes are a bit awkwardly handled, readers will enjoy putting two and two together before the characters do. A cute meet-cute. (Picture book. 4-8)

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May 1, 2021

Gr 2-4-Sicily Bridges lives with her mother in a brownstone where most of her neighbors are elderly. While her mother works, Sicily is left in the care of Mrs. Rubenstein. Her kindly neighbor gives Sicily the space to exercise her active imagination. As Sicily wanders the building, she decides that many of her neighbors could use something special: a friend. Sicily loves to invent, and on this day, decides to make a friend for each of her neighbors. She constructs friends from soup cans, watering cans, polka-dot fabric, string, tape, hot glue, and more. Each neighbor is thrilled to receive such a surprise, and by the time she delivers a special gift to everyone, Sicily finds a surprise herself: a friend her own age. Medina's artwork features a pleasingly pastel color palette. The building feels real and lived in. Sicily is brown-skinned and the other residents, young and old, are depicted with a range of skin tones and physical abilities. There is some nice repetition of sound effects, like the knocking on doors, and dialogue is well chosen and authentic. However, the text often narrates what is already apparent in the illustrations. VERDICT This is a touching story about imagination and compassion that belongs in most collections, for read-alouds or for emerging readers.-Chance Lee Joyner, Haverhill P.L., MA

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