Good Guys, Bad Guys
by Joanne Rocklin; illus. by Nancy Carpenter
Preschool, Primary    Abrams    32 pp.    g
5/20    978-1-4197-3417-5    $16.99

Rocklin and Carpenter present a ­rollicking homage to neighborhood kid–­summertime play. The story begins on the title-page spread as two children get ready to greet the morning. On the left-hand page is a neatly pajama-clad boy making his bed, above the words “Good Guys”; the right page shows a tousle-headed girl, eyes still half-shut, with blanket askew, above “Bad Guys.” The page-turn confirms, in jaunty rhymes, the two kids’ roles: “Here comes a bad guy, / sniffly and slouchy. / Up at five / sleepy and grouchy…Here comes a good guy / fresh from a shower. / Squeaky-clean, / smells like a flower.” Both head outside to join their respective (mixed-gender) crews, with the pirate-costumed bad guys gravitating toward splashing (in an ­aboveground pool) while the good guys perform orderly swim strokes. The imaginary play, complete with costume changes, continues throughout the day, with the blue-sky backgrounds in Carpenter’s high-energy, motion-filled charcoal, watercolor, and digital illustrations growing subtly darker — until bedtime. In an entertaining twist, just before the two kids from the beginning call it a night, they agree to switch roles the next day: “My turn to be a good guy!” The final spread leaves readers with a gentle message about not prejudging others’ inherent goodness or badness: “Lights out. / Can’t tell / which is which.”

From the July/August 2020 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.