STELLA & MARIGOLD

A favorite sister duo returns for a third outing.

With a bond that could rival that of Beezus and Ramona, second grader Stella and preschooler Marigold grapple with ideas of children long gone and children yet to come. When Marigold discovers a scrawled message in green marker on the wall (“I drew on the wall HA HA”), Stella tells her it was probably written by a kid who lived here years ago. Marigold is shocked (“Someone lived here before?”), and Stella whips up the tale of a girl named Ziamara. Marigold is enthralled by these conjured stories of Ziamara, who (she is convinced) probably got to live out Marigold’s dream of going onto the roof of their house. Stella, when she’s not trying to find time travel portals in her home, realizes that long after they are gone there will be future children in this place. Bite-size adventures, involving everything from cuts and scrapes to the rescue of a beloved coloring book, flesh out these tales. Barrows is a gifted writer; one of her true talents is her acknowledgment of how great familial love is bound tightly to bone-deep annoyance. After all, even the most loving family members can get on one another’s nerves. Blackall, meanwhile, brings real and imagined escapades to life, and clearly has a ball depicting imagined wild child Ziamara. The lead characters are pale-skinned.

Genuine affection and exasperation vie for attention in this thoughtful exploration of big ideas on a small scale.