GRUMPY FEET

A bear steps out of a drawing to chase away a bad mood.

Today is not quite right. On a day so “grouchy and mouchy, out of sorts and discombobbled”—a day when the teapot’s spout droops downwards—even drawing doesn’t help: Lily’s pencils are “too pointy, her paint too sloshy.” Still, she brings herself to draw Bear, who steps from the huge piece of paper into Lily’s room, alive. With toy medical equipment and goodwill, Bear diagnoses Lily with “grumpy feet.” Googly-eyed slippers—bigger than Lily’s head—don’t help; a serving of sticky cake doesn’t help. But if Bear can set them on a journey “past the rainy day” toward someplace “that glows all comfy, not frumpy and bumpy,” Lily’s feet may cheer up—they may even tap, wiggle, giggle, and jump. That place is the starry night sky, where they fulfill Lily’s list of goals, including “polish[ing] stars” and “jump[ing] really very high.” Stubbs’ screen-printed illustrations offset vibrant crayon-y textures with the occasional childlike style of Lily’s drawings. Lively scribbles run page to page, connoting weather and mood. The morose teapot sits on the floor in one scene, dripping down onto a different scene, in which its droplets become rain from a scribbly cloud. Lily has pale pink skin, a red-tipped nose, and a lower lip that sticks right out.

Stubbs tackles an evergreen topic and does it very well.