The Blanket Where Violet Sits
by Allan Wolf; illus. by Lauren Tobia
Preschool     Candlewick    32 pp.    g
8/22    978-0-7636-9665-8    $17.99

In this preschooler’s introduction to the universe, a little girl’s city-set picnic with two loving caregivers zooms from the titular blanket out to “the known universe, past comprehension,” and back. Wolf adopts a cumulative “House That Jack Built” rhythm and structure that begins, “This is the blanket where Violet sits, / eating a sandwich, an apple, and chips,” and simply but gracefully adds elements. Tobia’s (Oscar’s Tower of Flowers, rev. 9/21; Anna Hibiscus books) frame repeatedly expands perspective ­further and further before returning, like the rhyme, to blanket and family in a gentle ebb and flow. Her characters are rendered in her signature style, with round, ­dumpling-like faces, soft noses, and tiny eyes topped by emotive ­eyebrows. They are a family of color bundled for the outing such that one adult’s gender expression is entirely ­ambiguous (the other sports a soul patch). As day turns to night, Violet’s caregivers don headlamps and set up a telescope (presumably carried to the park in their little red wagon, festooned with fairy lights). As Tobia’s paintings take in the solar system and the galaxy, they retain a warm informality while also achieving a sense of awe. Between the tried-and-true narrative structure and the centering of this abundantly loved child, this must be the coziest exploration of the universe ever.

From the July/August 2022 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.