Finding Grateful

When a red car breaks down and its passengers, a mother and child, start walking home, the child points anxiously toward the raised hood and the smoke, and the mother responds with a smile. She sees life as a search for gratitude, a conviction that grounds this tale by White (Dark on Light): “Mama says:/ you don’t need a map/ to find grateful.” As the two walk through city streets, the child spots a flower growing in a sidewalk crack. “Mama says:/ be where your feet are/ that means/ pay attention.” In mixed-media spreads by Pray (One Day), passersby are more than just background figures; they offer tangible warmth and presence to the child’s landscape. Pleasure in sensory perceptions—the scent of honeysuckle, toes freed from sandals, a hug after a fall—unite in the child’s final realization: “Maybe it is all of this/ that makes my heart as light as/ the sun... and then?/ I find it—/ grateful!” Implicit in both artwork and text is the deep trust mother and child share, and the way that trust opens the younger to mindfulness. Characters are portrayed with various abilities and skin tones. Ages 5–8. Author’s agent: Jennifer Rofé, Andrea Brown Literary. Illustrator’s agent: Molly O’Neill, Root Literary. (Apr.)