IF YOU GET LOST

Lines blur between reality and fantasy in this tale of a beloved stuffed rabbit who is lost and found.

A title-page illustration shows a child with brown skin and wavy dark hair clutching a plush bunny while walking toward two adults (one has similar coloring; the other is lighter-skinned) who are packing a car with a canoe strapped to its roof. As the trio drive off on their camping trip, the child holds the stuffed rabbit out a rolled-down window. It becomes clear that the titular you refers to the toy, as the child loses hold of it. The rabbit sails out the window and into the roadside woods. While it’s hard to understand why the family doesn’t stop the car to look for the toy, their inaction is crucial to the plot: It is in the woods that the toy comes to life. Forest creatures, including a friendly fox, come upon the rabbit, and “That’s when lost can become something else.” Whimsical descriptions of “something else” might be obscure for some readers (“A poem without words. // A song without notes. // A light / a breath / a world / a celebration”), but accompanying watercolor-and-ink illustrations, which make dramatic use of perspective, ground the story in the rabbit’s playful explorations of the woods with new woodland friends. A reunion between bunny and child rounds out this sweet story, with a cozy campfire delivering a happily-ever-after ending. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

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