COVERED IN ADVENTURES

For kids who like to get their clothes washed only after many wearings.

Sasha, a girl with dark skin and cornrowed hair, can’t believe it when Dad Paul and Dad Finn ask to wash her favorite orange sweater. She wonders what’s wrong with it and declares it’s not dirty but “COVERED IN ADVENTURES!” It might show wear and mess from her imaginative nautical journey, science experiments, cooking, camping, nature exploration, and more, but this shows evidence of her varied adventures. A goat even found her sleeve so tasty during a farm visit that it got a bit chewed. With every recollected exploit, the sweater displays ever more splotches and smirches. Rather than despair about her filthy sweater, Sasha’s dads find a pleasing compromise. This entertaining, uplifting, and funny rainbow-family story spotlights a kid with plenty of interests who pursues them passionately. Hibbs does not illustrate Sasha’s cornrows and Afro puff with perfect consistency, but she does paint Sasha’s dads as an interracial couple and give her a diverse group of friends with varying abilities who join Sasha in lots of activities, from painting a wall mural to building huge cardboard-box boats. Her friend who uses a wheelchair also bikes and camps with the buddies. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A sweet story to inspire kids to pursue adventures…and creatively avoid laundry.