It was the best of times, it was the worst of times: doubtless this is the assessment of many a child who has gone through the pain-slash-excitement-slash-annoyance of breaking a bone and having to wear a cast. Debut author Jordan Morris and illustrator Charlie Mylie (Something for You; Anything with You) have built Out on a Limb, their divine feelings-front picture book, around one kid's experience with a temporary disability--and a permanently wonderful grandfather.Lulu has a broken leg, which means lots of "special attention" plus a "sympathy trove" (games, books, cards). On the downside, because of her cast, she has to "think of new ways to do ordinary things" (take a bath, get to school). Lulu's frustration with her injury is gradually winning out over its novelty, so when her cast is finally removed after six weeks, she's surprised to feel something other than elation: "Shouldn't she be happy to get rid of that itchy, old cast?" Not only does she miss the spotlight the cast invites, but she's finding reentry into the ambulatory world, which is full of staircases to tumble down and playground climbing structures to fall off, a little scary: "She wanted to be Lulu with a yellow cast and she wanted her leg to be safe inside."
Morris leaves no feeling unturned in Out on a Limb, for which Mylie has created a pigtailed protagonist whose every emotion commands her face like a newspaper headline. Mylie introduces to his largely grayscale digitally tweaked graphite art a glowing yellow that highlights, among other objects of interest, Lulu's cast, the single compensatory rain boot she elects to wear once her cast is off and the envelope containing the letter that her perceptive grandfather mails to her. Scattered throughout the book are wordless panels showing the waylaid letter's circuitous journey: it goes from mailbox to post office floor to shoe bottom and on and on until, toward book’s end, it lands in the bird's nest from which Lulu retrieves it after screwing up her courage and climbing a tree. It's almost as if Grandpa planned it this way. "Some things just need a little extra time," he tells Lulu regarding the letter's delayed arrival, but of course he is talking about something else too. His letter makes all the difference in Lulu's emotional recovery, which, Out on a Limb reminds readers, can sometimes be more difficult than the physical piece. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author
Shelf Talker: In this emotionally resounding picture book, a girl who has broken her leg finds herself feeling blue after her cast comes off and she must return to the ambulatory world.