On Our Way! What a Day!

Six children set out with energy and excitement, crossing a city on foot and by bus to celebrate their grandmother’s birthday, in this musical telling. Anthony (Most Perfect You) shows the family’s house in cross-section (framed portraits of jazz musicians enliven the walls) as the eldest waits at the door: “But we don’t have a gift to share!/ Let’s look for one on our way there.” On each spread, one of the children discovers a treasure, announcing it in an easily remembered verse formula: “Gram won’t want a pine cone,/ a scritchy-scratchy pine cone./ Nah, Gram won’t want a pine cone.// Yeah, but I do!” From “jingly-jangly” quarters on the bus floor to “tippy-tappy” pencils from a boutique, Brown-Wood (Jam, Too?) highlights each object’s signature sound as the sonic layers build. Digital spreads peppered with music notes capture dancing movements that clearly represent rhythm as part of the journey, until the family arrives to warmth and more tunes at Gram’s house. It’s a party of a readaloud that shows how an interesting sound, its own kind of gift, can come from nearly anywhere. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–6. Author’s agent: Karen Grencik, Red Fox Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Anne Moore Armstrong, Bright Agency. (Jan.)