By Emily Kilgore
A recital is coming, and little creatures called Whatifs have latched onto Cora, whispering every worry that starts with the words what if.
The Whatifs are little creatures — soft, quiet, easy to miss — and they cling to people and whisper questions. What if you forget the notes? What if you trip walking up? What if everyone laughs? Cora has a piano recital coming, and the Whatifs find her. Then they multiply. They pile onto her arms and her hair and her back until she's so weighed down she can barely move and can't hear much of anything else. A girl named Stella has Whatifs too, and she's figured out something Cora hasn't: a Whatif is only a question, and a question works in both directions. What if you play it perfectly? What if you love it? Cora starts asking the hopeful ones back, and the swarm begins to thin.
This is one for the child whose worry has a shape and a date on it — the recital, the test, the first day, the party. Cora isn't worried about everything; she's worried about one thing that's coming on Saturday, and a worry you can point at is one your child can hold up and actually look at. Persico draws the Whatifs as almost cute, which does more than it seems to. Your child isn't hearing that their worry is a monster, only that a lot of them have piled up and gotten heavy. Stella's trick is small enough to remember on the walk to the car: the question is still a question, so try asking it the other way. And the ending doesn't cheat. Cora's Whatifs don't all disappear. A few stay on, and some children may find that more believable than a worry that just vanishes.