Everything Is Fine!

In this madcap romp, Sumovich (One More Jar of Jam) and Jacoby (Doris) consider what might happen when a mother, after a long day of shopping and parenting, unwittingly slurps up daughter Paulette along with her evening meal. When the pale-skinned duo set out for the market, wispy multimedia spreads and vignettes imagine a fairy tale world of wooden stalls and beguiling farm animals, where Paulette’s mother, arrayed in frothy pink, demonstrates happy disregard for the misdeeds of her “precious tornado.” “Everything was fine!” assures winking narration as Paulette has a “little whoopsie at the fresh pasta stand” and applies tomatoes to the farmer’s goat. After the child sniffs a bottle at the herbalist’s wagon, mother and daughter head home and cook “a pleasant sauce (so pleasant),” and the fateful mouthful is swallowed. Readers see a cutaway view of Paulette sleeping safely in her mother’s stomach, but her frantic mama, who thinks she’s lost, searches everywhere, encountering overwhelmed parents and “beastly” children, until the herbalist returns. It’s a fantastical idyll that slyly mines the theme of doting adults and obstreperous children. Secondary characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. Author’s agent: Hannah Mann, Writers House. Illustrator’s agent: Steven Malk, Writers House. (Oct.)