If You Get Lost

by Nikki Loftin, Deborah Marcero (Illustrator)

Overview

In this gentle read-aloud—a modern day Velveteen Rabbit—a stuffed bunny comes to life after getting lost on a family's camping trip, then finds its way back to its child.

"If you get lost, and you might get lost...." In simple language that speaks directly to us, a magical and soothing story unfolds. A little girl accidentally drops her stuffed bunny out the car window, and the bunny—which has quietly come alive— feels scared. Searching up, down, in, out, and between, it soon finds itself among a group of friendly forest animals, who accompany it on its journey. Together they frolic through the woods and over a stream until the bunny finds itself safely back where it belongs, in the little girl's arms.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780593375310
Publisher:	Random House Children's Books
Publication date:	07/18/2023
Pages:	40
Product dimensions:	8.88(w) x 11.31(h) x 0.44(d)
Age Range:	3 - 7 Years

About the Author

Nikki Loftin is the author of three middle grade novels, including Nightingale's Nest, which received starred reviews from Kirkus and the Bulletin for the Center for Children’s Books, and The Sinister Sweetness of Splendid Academy, which was the winner of the 2013 Writer’s League of Texas Book Award. This is her picture book debut.

Deborah Marcero is the author and illustrator of the bestselling picture books In a Jar and My Heart Is a Compass. She also illustrated The Boy Whose Head Was Filled With Stars: A Life of Edwin Hubble by Isabelle Marinov and Twinderella by Corey Rosen Schwartz. Learn more at deborahmarcero.com and follow her on Twitter and Instagram @deborahmarcero.

Editorial Reviews

" A reunion between bunny and child rounds out this sweet story, with a cozy campfire delivering a happily-ever-after ending." —Kirkus Reviews

From the Publisher

2023-04-12
Lines blur between reality and fantasy in this tale of a beloved stuffed rabbit who is lost and found.

A title-page illustration shows a child with brown skin and wavy dark hair clutching a plush bunny while walking toward two adults (one has similar coloring; the other is lighter-skinned) who are packing a car with a canoe strapped to its roof. As the trio drive off on their camping trip, the child holds the stuffed rabbit out a rolled-down window. It becomes clear that the titular you refers to the toy, as the child loses hold of it. The rabbit sails out the window and into the roadside woods. While it’s hard to understand why the family doesn’t stop the car to look for the toy, their inaction is crucial to the plot: It is in the woods that the toy comes to life. Forest creatures, including a friendly fox, come upon the rabbit, and “That’s when lost can become something else.” Whimsical descriptions of “something else” might be obscure for some readers (“A poem without words. // A song without notes. // A light / a breath / a world / a celebration”), but accompanying watercolor-and-ink illustrations, which make dramatic use of perspective, ground the story in the rabbit’s playful explorations of the woods with new woodland friends. A reunion between bunny and child rounds out this sweet story, with a cozy campfire delivering a happily-ever-after ending. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Find this book. (Picture book. 3-6)

Kirkus Reviews