Home at Last.

Foster child Lester finally has a real family in Daddy Albert, Daddy Rich, and their dog Wincka; the couple has "at last and really and truly" adopted Lester. Life should be good and it mostly is, but Lester is anxious sleeping alone, and "more than anything he longed to wriggle right into the middle of that bed, with Daddy Rich on one side and Daddy Albert on the other side and fat old Wincka at his feet." The text takes its time in developing and solving this crisis, but the pleasures of familyhood -- Lester learning to ride a two-wheeler with Daddy Rich, for example -- dot the narrative and provide texture. Although the text has a tendency to spell things out ("that way he knew he would be safe from everything bad in the whole world") and otherwise linger, a real portrait of the family emerges and doesn't shy away from difficult aspects: having had enough, tightly wound Daddy Albert yells at Lester to stay in his own bed. That the two dads have such distinct personalities (Daddy Rich is "easygoing") is quietly noteworthy, as is the matter-of-fact intimacy of a boy in bed with his gay dads. In their watercolor pictures, Williams and Raschka engage this specificity and intimacy further, with cozy, limber shaping that recalls Margot Zemach and big, beautiful hands for the dads, ready to protect and comfort their son. Wincka, the dog who saves the, er, night, has personality to spare, her exuberance seeming to burst from the car when the dads first come to take Lester home. roger sutton

Foster child Lester finally has a real family in Daddy Albert, Daddy Rich, and their dog Wincka. But sleeping alone makes Lester anxious. While the text takes its time in developing and solving this crisis, the pleasures of familyhood dot the narrative and provide texture. In their watercolors, Williams and Raschka engage the matter-of-fact intimacy of the boy with his gay dads.