HOMESICK

Poppy is tickled that it’s time for her first night sleeping away from home, but her house has other feelings.

It’s Poppy’s first sleepover at Mimi and G-pa’s house, and she can’t wait. Her bag is packed, her outfit’s perfect: “She was ready.” Poppy may be ready, but Home? “Home…wasn’t.” Home “started missing Poppy right away.” Even with others present, “Home felt hollow and echoey” without Poppy. “Home felt almost a little…sick.” Meanwhile, Poppy, enjoying the comforts and novelty of her new surroundings, is fine—until she isn’t. But Poppy and Home are both comforted by the realization that big adventures can be enjoyed when there’s “a good home waiting.” Scanlon and Vernick’s omniscient narration shifts focus between Poppy and Home, the contrast of their emotional arcs impeccably captured through emphatic page turns and tone. Miyares’ ink and gouache art depicts kinetic Poppy in warm hues, while Home, bereft, is cast in bruised blacks and blues, often floating on white expanses, with text tucked neatly on solid spaces. This reassuring blend of Adam Rex and Christian Robinson’s School’s First Day of School (2016) and Janet Costa Bates and AG Ford’s Time for Bed, Old House (2021) perfectly evokes the push-pull emotions of a significant childhood milestone. Characters have skin the shifting colors of the pages.

Cozy and relatable—Home is definitely where the heart is.