SKY-HIGH GUY

In this winning companion to Below (2006), Crews tells a simple story-in-photographs of two brothers, Jack and Gus, and their serene action figure, Guy, who’s amenable to any kind of adventure from dinosaur hunting (on the bookshelf between Seabiscuit and Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary) to saving the city from destruction to (“Oh, no!”) getting caught in a backyard tree while skydiving. Just at that dramatic moment, Mom calls the boys inside. But they can’t leave Guy up in the branches with the possibility of rain and snow… or wild animals! (These imagined threats are effectively superimposed on the photos as loose, white, line drawings.) Sibling teamwork and the persistent flinging of a lasso facilitate a satisfying rescue. The spare text hits just the right notes, and, along with the full-bleed photos of regular (and adorable) kids in a regular (and lushly leafy) backyard, captures the childhood thrill of believing, if only for a while, that poor, steadfast Guy might really be in terrible danger and that only boy heroes could ever save the day. (Picture book. 4-6)