HUGGING HOUR!

A winning intimacy infuses this tale of a small child who is dropped off for an overnight with Grandma. After waiting seemingly forever for her parents’ return, young Drew (or “Drool,” as she prefers to call herself) sadly concludes that she’s an orphan. Both Grandma and Kip, the house chicken, ignore her pleas for sympathy—Kip finally disappearing after being subjected to a game of dress-up, and Grandma cheerily offering in succession hugs, Belgian waffles, triple-decker cupcakes and a story at bedtime. Leijten depicts the domestic setting in soft, subtly modulated colors and outfits her figures (even, briefly, Kip) in full-bodied polka-dot–print house dresses. Grandma sports an extravagant triple bun atop her outsized oval head, plus spit curls that find visual echoes in Drool’s delicate auburn fuzz. The effect is entirely cozy, and when Drool’s parents do at last arrive to sweep her away, hardly is she in the car before she’s asking to come back. Readers and prereaders alike will be left smiling. (Picture book. 5-7)