When Things Aren't Going Right, Go Left

April 24, 2023
Resilience and optimism win the day—and the long game—in an encouraging fable about finding one’s way. One gloomy, rainy day, when “Absolutely, positively, NOTHING was going right,” a young protagonist loaded down with baggage opts for a course correction, explaining: “So... I decided to go left.” The child first leaves behind a crate full of worries—fiery red gremlins who yell, “Where are you going?” Further down the line, the protagonist sheds a sack of bellowing green doubts and approaches a diving board that brings back memories of a
previous failed dive, where ditching more luggage eventually leads to exhilarating success. Heading home, the child’s gradually retrieved bags boast quieter contents that, Colagiovanni writes, “weren’t so hard to handle anymore.” Scenes rendered in Reynolds’s bold, loose lines introduce a protagonist with brown skin as well as a bird companion, who travel through pages with mottled backgrounds that moodily shift hue. It’s a straightforward take on managing emotions that’s just right for new grads. Ages 4–8.