By Emily Tetri
A girl sent to her aunts' tiny island for the summer discovers the quiet magic that runs the whole place.
It's Sara's last summer before her family moves and she has to start over at a new school, and she wanted to spend it with the friends she's about to leave. Instead she's packed off to stay with her aunts on a tiny island in the middle of nowhere, miles from any other children. But the island turns out to be full of small magics - dogs that talk, trees with minds of their own, a wind that blows your way if you say please - and Sara slowly stops sulking and starts paying attention.
This is from Emily Tetri, who made the Geisel Honor book Tiger vs. Nightmare, and the art is the reason to hand it over - glowing and warm, the kind of pages a child slows down to sit inside. The magic is small and kind, never scary, so it's a soft landing for a child who wants wonder without any frightening parts. If your child is dreading a move or a new school, Sara's summer of noticing the good in an unfamiliar place is quietly reassuring, and it reads fast the way the best graphic novels do.