AMBER WAITING

Gregory (Wild Girl and Gran, not reviewed, etc.) sends an oblique but pointed message to parents: Amber enjoys everything about Kindergarten except having to wait to be picked up. Here, she’s left to sit in the hall for an hour after her classmates depart, wishing she could fly so that she could deposit her father on the Moon and leave him to wait while she soars over all the other fathers on Earth. Denton creates brightly lit watercolor classroom and playground scenes, strands Amber—looking lonely at first, then annoyed—beneath a clock, then opens broader scenes to depict her imagined flights. At last Dad rushes in, flashing “his famous smile,” but his superficial apology becomes something more genuine after Amber asks him if he’s ever been on the Moon, “Waiting for someone. Scared and lonely.” This is just the sort of episode that children should insist on sharing with similarly dilatory caregivers. (Picture book. 5-7)