Boom Snot Twitty

This is a much subtler and gentler offering than Cronin’s (Click, Clack, Moo) previous picture books, making the illustrator behind The Quiet Book a fitting collaborator. The title names the story’s three characters: Boom is a restless, impulse-driven bear; Twitty, a robin, is a cautious homebody; and Snot the snail exists somewhere between them, a patient observer of her world who also grabs hold of adventure when it presents itself. As the three “[wait] for the day to begin,” they quietly disagree about what to do. Twitty is content to crochet, Boom says, “Let’s go somewhere,” and a sudden storm makes the decision for them. Cronin deploys just enough text to hang a story on (“Boom ran. Yuck. Twitty hid. Yick. Snot floated back to her spot. WHEE!”) while Liwska fills in the emotional blanks, her now-familiar fuzzy-soft artwork communicating the threesome’s excitement, alarm, malaise, and contentment through their body language and features. The overall effect is that of three dissimilar yet compatible friends who are so comfortable in each other’s company that they barely need to communicate. Ages 3–5. Agent: Holly McGhee, Pippin Properties. (May)