CLOUD BOY

Using smoothly rounded forms and a very pale blue-and-white color scheme, comic artist Montijo explores the artistic impulse in a brief episode that’s as insubstantial as the clouds he depicts. A “lonely little cloud boy” (close cousin, to judge from appearances, to Casper the Friendly Ghost) is inspired by a living butterfly to mold clouds into a variety of animal shapes and, seeing children down below looking at his floating creations, somehow concludes that “he would never be lonely again.” This debut may have some resonance for older budding artists, but for younger audiences it offers no competition to Charles G. Shaw’s ageless It Looked Like Spilt Milk (1947). (Picture book. 5-7)