​When a Friend Needs a Friend

Roozeboos portrays big feels with sensitivity in this tender story about two best friends navigating one’s need for alone time. Oskar, a white-presenting child with curly red hair and round glasses, loves to build. He and narrating chum Aya, portrayed with brown skin and long brown hair, seem to be happy regulars at a construction site where workers, shown with various skin tones, greet them: “Hi, Little Buddies!” But Oskar also sometimes gets “quiet or grumpy,” and one day his emotions run so deep that he just wants to be left alone, leaving Aya unsure about how to react: “How could I comfort him? What could I say?” As Oskar builds a tall tree house that he occupies, solo, across multiple seasons, Aya sends paper airplanes from an open window. With support from the construction crew (“Sometimes Oskar has big feelings and needs a little space”), Aya eventually finds a way to connect with Oskar, and a metaphorical visual gestures toward the usefulness of gaining perspective. In a book that largely resists oversimplifying a child’s intense emotions, scribbly textures and mixed-media collages capture layered feelings, and reactions, on display across time. Ages 4–8. (Feb.)