Sanctuary: A Home for Rescued Farm Animals

Centering scenes of children with varying abilities and skin tones alongside animals who have arrived at a farm sanctuary, Denos (Starcrossed) bears quiet witness to the lives of animals released from making food for humans. “You are afraid,” says a child to a goat with a bandaged leg, “but I am here. And here you are safe.” A youth holds a goat’s ear, and the tag punched through it: “Here you have a name, instead of a number.” Softly stroked vignettes show piglets nursing, a hen on a nest, and a cow and a calf cavorting: “Here your value comes from being you—not the milk and cheese you were forced to make.” In a quietly affecting spread, a stock truck moving along a highway at night, its back gate open, leaves behind two lambs, who leap over a guardrail to freedom. Likely to require context-setting, this conversation-opening picture book foregrounds important messages of innate value and community care: “Here your body is safe. Your family is safe. Your heart is safe, in mine.” A note to caregivers supplies sobering information about industrial food production. Ages 4–8. Agent: Lori Kilkelly, LK Literary. [em](Jan.) [/em]