ASTRID AND THE SKY CALF

A young physician learns a valuable lesson about emotional care.

Dr. Astrid, a blue-haired white girl in a yellow lab coat, tends to her Magical Beasts and makes sure they’re always in the best of spirits. One day a sky calf (a substantial-looking young bovine with yellow wings) flies in through her window and stands there, gazing at the young physician with a worried expression. Dr. Astrid asks what’s wrong, but the sky calf doesn’t hint to any illness. Dr. Astrid checks the sky calf’s temperature and heartbeat. She then uses her handy sticky tape to fix the problem, but the sky calf doesn’t respond to the treatment. Instead of trying to treat the sky calf physically, Dr. Astrid decides to spend time with the sky calf: playing games, coloring, and just keeping the calf company. The ensuing picture book is a pleasant ode to the understated delight of just spending time with a friend. The illustrations are drawn with thick scratchy lines and colored with broad strokes; Astrid is the white of the paper. The style evokes the hand-drawn art many little ones bring home from school to put upon the fridge. The book’s pace is calmly measured, best read on a lazy sunny day—the kind when readers might find sky calves flying through their own windows.

An imaginative, leisurely paced tale.