PERCY'S MUSEUM

Percy adjusts to his new home by opening himself to nature.

The first of the book’s whimsical, exclusively double-paged spreads opens with the text “Percy’s old house was perfect. There was always something to do, and always someone to do it with.” Percy’s former home is an immaculately clean city, portrayed with candy-confection colors and populated by a diverse group of active, happy citizens. Aided by Percy’s image on the cover, readers can spot Percy, a school-age boy with brown skin and a thatch of straight brown hair, upstairs with a friend, inside one of the buildings. Soon it is revealed that Percy’s new home has a large, sprawling yard with a good-sized playhouse toward the back. There are meadows and mountains. A light-skinned girl and her dog occasionally appear in the distance. It takes a short amount of time for Percy and his cat to start exploring the surroundings and to start collecting and recording. The text continues with short, generalized statements about new concepts Percy learns as he continues his investigations. What he finds and draws becomes, in the backyard playhouse, the titular museum. A gentle sweetness pervades the book, which comes full circle in the concluding spread. The art and text—and the lack of adult interventions—offer relief and empowerment to children facing a new environment and a calming, quiet read to those who are not. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.4-by-17-inch double-page spreads viewed at 54.8% of actual size.)

Encouraging and kind.