HENRY IN LOVE

With precise figures placed in vignettes on a gorgeous creamy stock, McCarty tells a sweetly simple, utterly sincere schoolyard love story. Each with one of Mrs. Calico’s blueberry muffins in his backpack, cat Henry, his older brother Tim and Henry’s dog friend Sancho head off to school—where rabbit Chloe, “the loveliest girl in his class,” sits in the back row, surrounded by a field of love-induced poppies. When, despite Sancho’s advice (“You’re not going to talk to a girl, are you?”). Henry approaches her at recess, a combination of acrobatics and a game of tag makes them friends. And when their teacher rearranges the class seating so they are next to one another, a snacktime carrot-and-muffin swap (with poppies festooned around them) cements the relationship. There’s nothing sly or cynical here—just a celebration of the moment. (Picture book. 3-6)