UPSIDE-DOWN SID

It’s hard to be upside down in a right-side-up world.

It is challenging for Sid to make friends and fit in, so he opts to spend time alone at home, but even there all the furniture is on the floors while he is on the ceilings, and it is lonely. When a basketball crashes through his window, his neighbors want to fix it and make it up to Sid by taking him to the amusement park. It goes disastrously, so Sid invites everyone for lunch, only for it to also go badly. The next day, while Sid is out, the neighbors sneak in to fix the window, but they also rearrange his house so that the furniture is on the ceiling. This act of friendship, along with deeper messages about accessibility, shows that when people are different, they shouldn’t have to adapt to the world—the world should adapt to them. Cartoon art with a bold use of line and a pared-down simplicity aids in maintaining the book’s lighter tone. It’ll be hard for readers not to chuckle at the sight of Sid using a fishing rod to access a book or placing his TV upside down so he can watch it while doing the dishes. The egg-shaped characters in this Australian import present mostly white with a few darker-skinned characters, including one neighbor.

A humorous read-aloud that can lead to deeper conversations.