Little Blue Chair

A boy’s favorite blue chair finds a wealth of new purposes as it’s passed from one temporary owner to another, over many years and miles. After the boy, Boo, outgrows the chair, his mother puts it out on the curb with a sign that reads, “Please take me,” launching a chain of events that sees the chair pressed into service as a plant stand, bird feeder, a chair for elephant rides, and a replacement seat on a Ferris wheel (the latter two uses being more whimsical than entirely safe, perhaps). Newcomer Kloepper works in a quiet palette of muddied green, red, mustard, and gray-blue, and she stocks her charming scenes of houseboats, amusement parks, and homes with a multitude of objects that invite close perusal—and which, like Boo’s chair, might have their own intriguing histories and futures. Fagan (I Wish I Could Draw) can’t resist a full-circle ending involving an adult Boo: this is, at heart, a romantic story, one that makes a lovely case for finding value and utility in secondhand items, and for sharing them when they are no longer needed. Ages 3–7. (Jan.)