If you get lost

K-Gr 3--A girl's stuffed bunny falls out of the car as her family goes on a camping trip. The toy bunny comes to life and finds adventures with new woodland animals until he finds his way back to the smiling girl. The words in the story are sparse and lyrical, accompanied by Marcero's soft, floating images. The intended message is difficult to understand. The bunny is frightened to be lost, as children would be in the same situation, but the advice offered will not comfort or help a lost child. The text encourages readers to "listen soft and softer/ loud and louder/ close and closer/ and find one thing/ one place/ one smile/ one friend. That's when lost can become something else… a world of celebration." In reality, if a child or toy is lost, the fear turns to sadness and dismay, not celebration. VERDICT This tale has an abstract message and story that young readers will have difficulty connecting with. For better stories about finding things that are lost, turn to Oliver Jeffers's Lost and Found and Mo Willems's Knuffle Bunny.--Heidi Dechief

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.) Find this book. (Picture book. 3-6) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.