Harriet Gets Carried Away

Dress-up-loving Harriet wears costumes everywhere; in one early scene, Sima (Not Quite Narwhal) shows her in the dentist’s chair, opening her mouth wide while inside an equally toothy dinosaur outfit. Dressed as a penguin, Harriet—who has dark skin, curly hair, and two fathers—heads to the grocery store with her dads before her birthday party, where she discovers a group of actual penguins replenishing their supply of bagged ice. Before she knows it, Harriet is aloft with them in their hot-air balloon, headed back to their polar home. Readers who fear that Harriet will be marooned or miss her birthday party will relax as an orca and a flock of pigeons help bring her back to the store, and the party goes off without a hitch. Harriet is a resourceful city child, the kind of girl who has no problem negotiating with an orca (she trades her red bow tie for a lift). The narrator’s offhand, unruffled voice (“So Harriet called in a favor from some friends she knew”) makes Harriet’s intrepid adventure a delightful readaloud. Ages 4–8. Agent: Thao Le, Sandra Dijkstra Literary. (Mar.)