A gentle story of connection and loss finds a promise in memories after a young child loses her constant companion.With a good friend like Loonie the yellow balloon, anything is possible. From neighborhood walks to reading aloud in bed to dance parties in your room, Loonie makes each activity a little brighter, a little fuller of sunshine. But as one child discovers with sadness, when it’s time for Loonie to float away home, the sunshine goes, too. It’s not as fun to have a dance party alone. And while tending to the garden helps a little bit, the world outside the window is silent and gray. Until, one day, as flowers start to push up from the soil, big and full of hope, the memory of Loonie begins to emerge in unexpected places. With tender empathy, and charming and whimsical art by Ashling Lindsay, Printz Award winner Nina LaCour illuminates the childhood companions that bring a little magic to the world.
On sale: March 28, 2023
Age: 4-8 years
Grade: Preschool - 3
Page count: 32 Pages
ISBN: 9781536213935
Nina LaCour is the best-selling and Michael L. Printz Award–winning author of several young adult novels, including
We Are Okay,
Hold Still,
The Disenchantments, and
Everything Leads to You,
as well as a novel for adults,
Yerba Buena.
She is also the author of
Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita. Her books have won many awards and have been translated into several languages. Nina LaCour lives with her wife and their daughter in San Francisco.
Ashling Lindsay is the illustrator of several books for children, including
The Night Box by Louise Greig, which was nominated for the Kate Greenaway Medal, and
The Tide by Clare Helen Welsh, a Crystal Kite Award winner. She is also the illustrator of an Alan Turing biography for the best-selling series Little People, Big Dreams. Ashling Lindsay lives in Belfast, Ireland.
Loss is loss, no matter how buoyant the friend. . . . Respect for children’s sadness and loss is exemplified beautifully in this tactful take on grief and its recovery.
—Kirkus Reviews
Mixed-media illustrations employ changing tones to emphasize the girl’s feelings. . . the story expresses emotion in a way that children may recognize and understand.
—Booklist
Styling gives the little girl ownership of her narrative and the depictions of her feelings—joy at activities with Loonie, sorrow at its absence, and the eventual glimmer of hope—in corresponding vivid or desaturated hues.
—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books
A big, bright yellow balloon represents beats of friendship and mourning in LaCour’s tender, well-paced tale. . . . The pages capture the very real emotional weight that children can attach to inanimate objects in this gentle introduction to loss.
—Publishers Weekly
A very gentle tale of friendship made and lost and its lingering impact. . . . Children will understand the emotional journey of the protagonist and have stories of connections made and lost ready to share by the end of this charming and heartfelt tale.
—School Library Journal
