Lawrence & Sophia

Pale-skinned young Lawrence is reluctant to head “out there,” beyond his small cottage’s backyard (“Out there was very big. Out there was very loud”). In desaturated images with electric-hued highlights, Brian Cronin (The Lost House) shows Lawrence safely within the fence, buried in a book. Sophia, a bird with fluffy blue feathers and a bright pink topknot, travels from tree to tree, avoiding the ground “down there” (“Down there was dark. Down there was bumpy”). When Sophia walks to the end of a long branch and spies Lawrence through his bedroom window, they become good friends, enjoying pastimes that don’t require venturing out. (One spread shows Sophia perched high up, wearing a costume wig with long, lime-green braids as Lawrence declaims, “Rapunzel, Rapunzel, let down your hair.”) Eventually, Sophia moves her nest closer to Lawrence, who builds an outdoor tent to be closer to Sophia. And when rain and thunder drive the two to check on each other, each leaves their respective comfort zones to do so. In a lightly rib-tickling examination of fright and friendship, Doreen Cronin (Click, Clack, Moo) suggests that shared perspectives and accountable friends represent a promising path to wider vistas. Ages 4–8. (Oct.)