Sometimes It’s Nice to Be Alone

PreS-Gr 2–This is a sweet story of a little girl enjoying simple pleasures. She reads a book, rides a bike, crunches leaves, somersaults in the grass, and more. The refrain normalizes solitude so that it feels cozy instead of lonely—“Just you, reading your book, alone, and the only sound in the world is the whispery sound of you turning pages.” But other times, Hest adds, “It’s nice when a friend stops by.” The friend on each spread is a stuffed animal that the girl imagines as her life-size companion. Stead’s captivating illustrations, beautifully rendered against a white backdrop, showcase the virtue of imagination. On each spread where the girl is enjoying her solitude, she looms large in the foreground, but when she is joined by a “friend,” she becomes smaller as the world around her expands. It’s a lovely thought.