The Bookshop on Lemon Tree Lane

When a dark-haired, pale-skinned child’s beloved local bookshop undergoes renovations, the young patron worries, since “old things and new things/ are never the same.” While lines acknowledge the existing store’s structural deficiencies, including a leaky ceiling, they also highlight the store’s cozy qualities—“crannies,” “nooks,” and “places to hide in while looking at books.” After the doors close for construction, the narrator observes the ensuing activity until opening day helps the youth to realize that the bookstore remains a place for discovery—a feeling underscored by doodles of fantastical creatures that surround the reading child in both of the store’s incarnations. Smudgy, colored pencil– and pastel-like artwork from Karmazina amplifies Lucas’s first-person rhymes, which emphasize growth and change as the shop’s initial warm brown shelves morph into a light-filled, modern space with apple-green accents. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 3–6. (Sept.)