Be Careful, Bruno!

In contrast to the notoriously under-discussed Bruno in Encanto, the Bruno in this picture book, who’s on the receiving end of some extreme helicopter parenting, probably wishes his family would stop talking about him. “Be careful, Bruno!” is his folks’ constant, agency-sapping reminder: before a trip to the park on a warm, sunny day, he’s mummified in woolly outerwear. After the kid makes a break for the slide, “Mom buckled him into a helmet, elbow pads, and a seatbelt while Dad strapped some knee pads onto him and then began mopping.” A frustrated outburst eventually wins Bruno, portrayed with mustard-hued skin, the right to play “like all the other kids”—he’s subsequently seen ecstatically romping with a group of peers shown with varying skin tones—and while Mom and Dad don’t entirely shed their anxieties, they realize that some rain or a scraped knee aren’t the end of the world. The snappy comedy style and exaggerated cartooning aesthetic focus on the family’s panicky exploits; illustrator Fragoso’s fluid pen and ink style tracks closely with the text by Andrés (Who Stole My Leg?), but they remain funny in their own right; the glimpse of a slide seatbelt is particularly memorable. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)