Perfect

Miki Amelia Masuda won’t eat broken cookies or wear torn trousers—she likes “everything to be perfect.” When her grandmother, Obaachan, presents her with a teacup from Japan, “white on top like the clouds and blue on the bottom like the ocean,” Miki is enchanted. Then, one evening, she drops the cup. Naturalistic mixed-media spreads by Jones (Niki Nakayama) carefully show the broken pieces reflecting the distress on Miki’s face. When Obaachan repairs the cup via kintsugi, the cracks are finished with gold, but the child remains distraught: “It was fixed... but not really fixed. Not one bit!” It’s as if Obaachan is “showing off the cracks.” Methodical text from Brown (The Very Unfortunate Wish of Melony Yoshimura), making a picture book debut, conveys Miki’s growth toward a new understanding of perfection. Like a beach she adores following a storm, the cup is not the same, “but it was still beautiful.” It’s a moment of maturing captured in real time, supported by understated guidance that models how to repair and restore instead of insisting on flawlessness. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Penny Moore, Aevitas Creative Management. Illustrator’s agent: Christy Ewers, CAT Agency. (Oct.)