Mine!

Heap (Danny’s Drawing Book) adds to the bookshelf of titles about kids struggling with sharing. In this case, the guilty party is a girl named Amy, who is very attached to her orange blanket. And her bear. And her bunny. And her bird. One can almost feel the hug Amy gives her three stuffed animals as Heap shows them sprawled out on the blanket. “I love you all,” she tells them, “because we’re together and because you’re MINE.” Reality quickly intrudes in the form of Amy’s twin brothers, who grab Bunny and Bear and “whirled and twirled them around and around,” and Baby Joe, who has a soft spot for Bird. Toy snatching and hurt feelings ensue, but Heap doesn’t make Amy suffer a dark night of the soul (or a parental scolding). Rather, she already knows what she needs to do, and she distributes the toys among her brothers. It’s perhaps an unrealistically rapid turnaround, but Heap’s naïve pencil-and-acrylics art expresses so much joy at the siblings’ reconciliation that some readers might just be tempted to see what happens when they share. Ages 2–5. (Oct.)