On its way across the world to wake up a little girl named Coco, the sun "skid[s] giddily" across oceans, balances on the wing of an airplane and makes a rainbow over a train of desert camels, until finally, "Bold as you like, it extinguishe[s] the streetlights on Coco's street" and barges through her window.
With How the Sun Got to Coco's House, Bob Graham (The Silver Button; A Bus Called Heaven) writes a thoughtful, expansive, pitch-perfect story for the preschool and kindergarten set. Soft ink and watercolor illustrations reflect the ever-changing light of the warm yellow sun as it travels from Arctic snowscapes to cramped city apartments--catching a whale's eye here, making shadows there. What could be more reassuring than waiting for the sun to rise, whether for a polar bear cub, an old woman or a small child in bed? And once the sun has arrived, why not invite it to spend the whole day together? --Emilie Coulter, freelance writer and editor