Brave Enough for Two

PreS-Gr 2—Hoot, a stuffed owl, and Olive, a winsome and messy-haired girl, are best friends. Olive likes to experience adventures from the safety of her window seat, her nose in a book. Hoot prefers the real thing and promises to be brave enough for them both. "We can never be lost so long as I'm here and you're there, and here and there aren't very far apart," he tells the wary child. A simple balloon ride turns frightening during a rainstorm, ending safely as Hoot unties the helium balloons one at a time to ensure a soft landing. But a ride down the river scares them both, and Hoot feels defeated when he discovers a hole in his covering, and some stuffing leaking out. Now it is time for Olive to be brave enough for two, and end their adventure tucked into bed with a book. Voss's digitally colored pen-and-ink watercolor paintings are soft and lovely, with half-page smudgy thumbnail pencil drawings a sort of storyboard for the narrative. The language is similarly soft and lovely, and a bit Milnesque: "The pair rolled out, head over bottom, into a patch of grass." It's only natural that Voss's characters share a Pooh and Christopher Robin relationship; he is the illustrator of Sally Walker's 2015 title that tells the story of the real Winnie the Pooh.