THE PERFECT SHELTER

A young child in an interracial family copes with an older sister’s illness and hospital stay.

Two children lie happily in the woods with their parents, among grass, trees, and flowers in hues of yellow, white, red, and blue. “At first nobody knew. It was the perfect day, it was the perfect weather… // …to build a shelter in the woods.” The children sing as they work and build “the perfect, perfect shelter!” But soon things change. Big sister is tired. The weather reflects the family’s changes. Despite a “wild wind,” the children build again. Then, amid a “river of rain,” the mother helps the narrating protagonist mend the shelter, as the big sister is with the doctors. Big sister has an operation; the narrator worries and doesn’t understand. A thunderstorm strikes. The perfect shelter is gone. Over time, through snowy days and nights, big sister, still in the hospital, grows stronger. One day, she suggests building a shelter right there in her hospital bed. The story captures the turmoil, uncertainty, sadness, and anxiety of watching a loved one go through illness and wanting things to go back to normal, and it ends with a celebration of finding a new normal. Gilland’s illustrations use gorgeous layered colors, patterns, and clean lines with plenty of white space for thoroughly engaging pictures. The father has brown skin, the mother presents as White, and the children are shades of light brown.

Lovely and healing.