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book review

Mitford at the Hollywood Zoo

By Donald Robertson

Viking Books for Young Readers, 40 pages, $23.99

High-fashion and picture books have more in common than one might initially think: both are highly visual media meant to appeal to a picky audience. Donald Robertson, an illustrator who also works as a creative director at Estée Lauder, understands this. Mitford, the frenetic giraffe who works as the tallest fashion assistant ever, made her first appearance on Robertson's Instagram several years ago, before appearing in 2015's Mitford at the Fashion Zoo. In this follow-up, Mitford is on a mission to find the perfect outfits for pop star Rhinoana and movie star Meryl Sheep before the Academy Zoowards. Yes, the puns (and they are plentiful) are cringey, but the sheer delight with which Robertson approaches his storytelling is evident in every fuchsia-infused illustration and quick-moving plot centred around Mitford's quick thinking and sartorial know-how. It's a book for children who love getting dressed in the morning as much as they love being read to at night.

Little Blue Chair

By Cary Fagan and Madeline Kloepper

Tundra Books, 40 pages, $22.99

Boo loves his little blue chair. It's the perfect size on which to sit while he eats his breakfast, or to prop up the centre of a tent. Eventually, he outgrows the chair, and his mother leaves it at the end of the lawn, where it is later picked up by a truck driver. So begins the chair's journey, travelling the world from owner to owner. It makes the perfect additional seat for a ship sailing across the ocean, bringing the chair to the shores of India. The chair hangs in a tree as a bird feeder and fills in for a missing seat on a Ferris Wheel in Paris. Though there are many children's books that depict the secret lives of treasured inanimate objects, it's the richly imagined scenes that bring this story to life. Newcomer Madeline Kloepper's detailed illustrations are the perfect accompaniments to picture-book veteran Cary Fagan's narrative.

Love Matters Most

By Mij Kelly and Gerry Turley

Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, 32 pages, $23.49

When I was a kid, Valentine's Day meant chocolate, cinnamon hearts and trading Pokemon-themed paper cards with my classmates. Not much has changed since then (Pokemon is just as popular). Abstract concepts such as love are difficult to explain to children. Mij Kelly's book opts for simplicity, down to the stark, brief couplets in which her story is told. A polar bear weathers a severe storm, looking for something she's lost. (The book unfurls like a mystery, but the illustration on the cover gives it away: It's her cub, she's looking for her missing cub.) As she makes her way through the wintry landscapes, she passes beautiful scenery, including salmon swimming upstream and one especially immersive illustration of the glowing Northern Lights. The bear is far too focused on her mission to notice her surroundings; she's on a journey fuelled by love (and, presumably, a whole lot of anxiety). Everything else is just background noise.

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