THIS IS MY ROOM!

Protagonist JoJo is old enough to have her own bedroom and doesn’t have to sleep with her big sister, Margaret, or anyone else…maybe.

As JoJo happily carries blankets to her new room, Margaret predicts that she’ll be back. JoJo pooh-poohs the notion. But after JoJo turns off her light and hunkers down, a lion steps out from behind the drapes. JoJo quickly hustles to Margaret’s room to tell her. Margaret suggests she make a “No Lions Allowed” sign. JoJo does and tapes it over her bed. After the lion reads the sign, it leaves; however, more animals appear. JoJo adds each animal’s name to the sign, which works until the curious tiger is confused by the sign. JoJo could return to her sister’s animal-free room, but instead she thinks of a way to solve the problem herself. Jacobson tackles the perennial desire of children to resist bedtime with a unique twist, her understated, patterned text totally in tune with her readers. Neonakis’ engaging use of color and composition make this a real page-turner. The interplay between text and illustrations may initially have some older readers skeptical that any animals are actually bedeviling JoJo, but the truth becomes clear in a dramatic, tension-filled sequence. The enormous bulks of JoJo’s nighttime animals, who seem as tentative as JoJo despite their fearsome looks, make for highly amusing compositions. JoJo and Margaret present white.

A winner, day or night