Colette's Lost Pet

March 20, 2017
When neighborhood newcomer Colette ventures into the adjoining yard, her neighbors Albert and Tom ask her what she’s doing. She tells a little lie: “I lost my pet.” When the boys ask if it’s a dog or cat, she invents again: “It’s a bird... a parakeet.” Arsenault (You Belong Here) gives the story the feel of a graphic novel for young readers, with smudgy, friendly panels and speech balloons accented with parakeet yellow and blue. With every embellishment Colette adds to her story (she names her pet Marie-Antoinette, “like the princess”), the children’s concern grows, and more searchers appear. When Colette’s inventions enter mythic territory (“We’ve been to the desert... and sailed the sea”), the others don’t chide her but join right in: “Does your parakeet play soccer, too?” It’s not Colette’s behavior that Arsenault holds up as exemplary, but that of her new friends. They welcome Colette and don’t shame her for making up stories that they understand come from nervousness. Most fibbing stories end with an abashed moment of coming clean; this one ends with a request for more make-believe. Ages 3–7. Agent: Kirsten Hall, Catbird Agency.

March 15, 2017
Colette's family moves to Montreal's Mile End, and her mother tells her, -For the last time, NO PET,- before shooing her outside to explore the neighborhood.Colette angrily kicks a box over a fence, goes to retrieve it, and meets some boys who introduce themselves and ask her what she's doing. After some hesitation, she timidly says that she's lost her pet, a parakeet, and the boys set out to help her find it, enlisting more help as they go, until the search party consists of five little white boys and girls including Colette, a brown-skinned girl of unspecified ethnicity, an Asian girl, a black boy, and a little black cat. When asked how they might identify the bird, Colette spins a grandiose tale, saying that her parakeet, Marie-Antoinette, is so big that she flies her on adventures to Paris, Japan, the desert, the sea, and the jungle. Her mother calls her in, and Colette turns to go, but the kids are full of questions about her bird, and she promises to tell them more tomorrow. Do they believe her, or is it just great fun to pretend? Arsenault's illustrations are done in black on white with bursts of bright yellow and occasional washes of pale blue, using pencil, watercolor, and ink in various textures to form a sweet style reminiscent of vintage illustrators Cynthia Amrine and Bill Sokol. Arsenault's story has the feel of a campfire song, increasingly fun and outrageous until the joyful end and its promise of new friendships. (Picture book. 3-7)

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April 1, 2017
PreS-Gr 2-Colette has just moved, and, worse, she has been told emphatically that she can't have a pet. When she unexpectedly meets two boys from her new neighborhood and is unsure what to say to them, she invents a story, shyly telling them that she is searching for her lost parakeet. The boys suggest borrowing Lily's binoculars; Lily, in turn, leads the kids to Scott's bird feeder; Scott directs the group to a fountain in Maya's yard; Maya has just spotted Beth's cat nearby; and Beth enlists the help of Lukas to make posters of the parakeet. With each stop through the neighborhood, Colette contrives new details about her missing bird, which build to an over-the-top account of their worldwide adventures together. Rather than calling her out on her obviously made-up tale, however, the kids play along, peppering Colette with questions, and in the end, they invite her to come back the next day and tell some more stories. The neighborhood kids are kind and willing to come to Colette's aid, but it doesn't quite make sense that they would all be charmed rather than annoyed at being duped. Arsenault uses sequential panels to tell the story, and the entire narrative is related in speech balloons. Rendered in pencil, watercolor, and ink, the soft, sometimes smudgy illustrations are rich with texture and evoke a gentle, retro feel. While the art is largely composed in black, white, and gray, Colette stands out in her yellow-hooded coat, and splashes of yellow and pale blue, added digitally, are used to highlight the children's imaginative play. VERDICT An additional selection where books about creative play and making new friends are needed.-Lauren Strohecker, McKinley Elementary School, Elkins Park, PA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from March 1, 2017
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* Colette's grouchy about moving to a new neighborhood and that she's not allowed to have a pet, so when she storms out of her yard and two kids her age ask what she's doing, she stretches the truth: Um . . . I lost my pet. Tom and Albert are eager to help, so they ask for more details. Colette says her pet is a parakeet, and Tom and Albert suggest borrowing Lily's binoculars to help find the bird. As Colette meets each new neighborhood kid, the story about her parakeet grows: she's named Marie Antoinette, she's blue and yellow, she sometimes talks (but only French). Colette's stories about Marie Antoinette gradually become wildly outrageous, but her new friends don't get mad that she's not telling the truth; instead, they happily play along with their new friend's imaginative game. Arsenault's beautiful, smudgy, scratchy scenes, rendered in soft grays with pops of bright yellow and pale blue, feature big-eyed, adorable kids earnestly searching for the imaginary bird, which is rendered relatively realistically, even as it grows to gargantuan proportions in Colette's story. With a graphic-novel-like format, arresting artwork, and a story that will ring true to many little kids with big imaginations of their own, this warm, funny picture book hits all the right notes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)