JAYDEN NOTICED

A young boy notices everything—including the opportunity to make a new friend.

Observant and gentle, Jayden is unhappy about his family’s upcoming move. He’ll miss his favorite oak tree, and he’s worried about making friends. Luckily, he can pack his jar of special rocks. In Crimi’s delightful characterization, Jayden isn’t so much a budding geologist as a blooming one, and his jar is nearly filled with “a homework rock, a thinking rock, a fort-building rock. But his favorites [are] his wishing rocks,” representing past wishes he’s made for “snow days, perfect pumpkins, and chocolate cake for dessert.” As Jayden frets about the move, his worries outmatch his wishes…until they don’t. While walking in his new neighborhood, he notices “a small brown rock with a river of sparkle running down its middle.” Knight-Justice’s accompanying softly contoured illustration beautifully depicts the wonder of this new rock. Jayden holds it and makes a wish, powerfully unstated in the text, but represented by a ribbon of calm blueness emanating forth in a hopeful upward trajectory. Readers will connect the dots when Jayden encounters another child, “a noticer like him.” The two hit it off, and as it turns out, Alex likes bugs as much as Jayden likes rocks. Jayden presents Black; Alex is tan-skinned.

You’re on notice: This picture book is a gem!