What to Bring

PreS-Gr 2–A picture book takes on a subject fraught with emotion: a fire is approaching and the family must evacuate. While the rest of her family frantically packs up a few belongings, Malia is all but paralyzed, and then overwhelmed with what she must take, which includes books, stuffies, blankets, pillows, and more. Her mother very gently reminds her that she can bring only important things, and Malia, with light brown skin and black bobbed hair, looking smaller by the minute, realizes that her backpack is too little for what’s truly a priority. In one of the final spreads, Malia is content to be with her family and two pets (and two stuffies); the rest she’ll carry in her heart. The overlaying of urgency and doom is never too dramatic; the author interlaces the necessity of forward motion with the wish to pause and reflect. The parents in this book act as a steadying force for their daughter as well as readers. The scenes are as straightforward as the work of Gail Gibbons and convey the distant fire in a threatening way, but not impossibly so.