Runaway Signs

The two silhouetted kids who appear on a school crossing sign take their job very seriously. Now summer’s here, and has anyone thanked them for the important job of keeping students safe? Nope. “I feel kind of underappreciated,” says one to the other. And with that, the symbols hop off the sign (“Signing off!”) and persuade all the other taken-for-granted symbols and markers—the wheelchair accessibility figure, animals from crossing signs, and many more—to leave their posts and join them at a local amusement park. But the view from the top of the Ferris wheel is alarming: without the signs, the humans are in real trouble. Farrell’s (The Hike) gouache and ink pictures portray a landscape that’s enchanted in a comically quotidian way—readers should get a kick out of watching familiar symbols scamper down the street, some of them sprouting cartoon arms and legs. Minimal narration by Holub (the Goddess Girls series) moves the story along, while dialogue balloons capture the signs’ devil-may-care attitude. Ages 4–7. [em](June) [/em]