My Wild Sister and Me

With great sensitivity and sweetness, German writer Wewer probes the never-quite-settled nature of sibling relationships. The younger one (who, with messy hair and a striped playsuit could be a little brother or sister) compares their changing moods to animals, and Wewer pictures them as animals, or dressed up as animals. "Some days, my older sister is a giraffe. She struts around and ignores me." (Here, Wewer pictures the older sister's head atop a leggy, spotted body; the younger sibling shouts up to her with a megaphone, but can't get her to respond.) On a better day, the two, dressed in bunny ears and tails, play Catch-the-Bunny until they're interrupted by an invitation for the older sister—"Right in the middle of our bunny adventure! My sister didn't even say good-bye." That night, the younger child's act of revenge at least gets the sister's attention: "Pretty soon, a dangerous leopard was standing in front of me. ‘WHERE IS MY TOOTHBRUSH?' she roared." Wewer doesn't promise an end to the hostilities, but her honesty will touch siblings on both sides of the age divide. Ages 3–up. (Mar.)