WHEN MY BROTHER GETS HOME by Tom Lichtenheld. New York: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing, 2020. 32p. ISBN 978-128498052 hc. $17.99     PreS – Gr.2     E PIC

As a young girl and her dog wait patiently for her brother to return home from school, she thinks of all the fun they will have together.  Every sentence begins, “When my brother gets home…” and ends with a multitude of possible activities they could take part in.  Each scenario is bigger than the one preceding it.  In the main character’s imagination, wading in the creek turns to an outing “into the deep, unexplored rainforest.”  Readers will enjoy the juxtaposition of the imaginative text that accompanies each illustration of a much more practical after-school activity.  The eye-catching watercolor and colored pencil illustrations show these expressive characters having loads of fun.  The end papers join the story with a dotted line map of the school bus route that zigzags through town while the girl waits for her brother.

Lynette Suckow, Superiorland Preview Center, Marquette, MI