Cloud Boy

In this buoyant picture book that literalizes a child’s experience of distractibility, pale-skinned Bobby does his best to focus amid competing perceptions (“Ooh! A snail!... Ooh! A very smelly smell!”). Though repeated exclamations of the child’s name fill early pages, “Bobby couldn’t hear them. He was thinking about: the taste of cake, the color of a bird’s song.” The youth wonders how others tackle organization, focus, memory, and sitting still, but attempts at mimicking these behaviors prove tiring, and imagination-fueled thoughts cause Bobby to simply float skyward. Well-intentioned loved ones endeavor to anchor the protagonist with a string, but when the tether interferes with his musings, Bobby snips the thread and flies fast and faraway, falling asleep in the clouds. Finally, others use their own imaginations for some essential perspective-taking that results in mutual levels of support. Stobbs’s candy-colored artwork mixes textures for a layered effect that embodies the text’s vision of acceptance and individual strengths. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–7. (Jan.)