Anything

Starred review from February 1, 2025
Newbery Medalist Stead makes her picture-book debut with the tale of a youngster dealing with that most turbulent of childhood upheavals: moving. A father and child mark the occasion with a birthday cake for their new apartment. Daddy encourages the youngster to blow out the candle. "What should I wish for?" "Anything." Permitted to wish for three "Anythings," the protagonist requests "a rainbow in my new room," a big slice of pizza, and to put off bath time. Daddy obliges, but later, the child is awakened in the night by frightening noises. "I wish I had one more Anything," the child tells Daddy. "Because I want to go home." Daddy hoists the little one onto his back: "All aboard the train to home!" After several lengthy trips around the apartment and a good night's sleep, the child awakens with a newfound appreciation for the family's abode. Stead traces a believably earned journey from fear and uncertainty to acceptance. Though spare, her first-person narration is steeped in emotion and laced with realistically childlike musings. The text pairs seamlessly with Zhang's expressive gouache and ballpoint pen artwork. As the two (both with skin the white of the page) settle in, their surroundings gradually go from scenes with just a few items, rendered with soft lines against a stark white background, to highly detailed spreads brimming with warm colors--a compelling visual representation of the child's trajectory. A sensitive, beautifully wrought meditation on change.(Picture book. 4-8)

COPYRIGHT(2025) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

March 1, 2025
In this first picture book written by middle-grade powerhouse Stead (Newbery Medalist for When You Reach Me, rev. 7/09), the unnamed narrator's father serves up chocolate cake to celebrate their first day in apartment 3B. "But something was wrong." Daddy says the child can make three wishes, for "Anything." Grief lies between the lines of restrained text. "I can wish for very hard things," but those Anything wishes are for things like the biggest slice of pizza in the world, requests the father can approximate. Illustrations done primarily in black ballpoint pen with small patches of gouache color open the book. In Zhang's subsequent spreads, as the narrator more fully feels and expresses emotions, the colors expand and ultimately fill the entire space. We don't know why this pair has moved, but heartache is evident in the effort both parties are making and in the tentative expressions on the child's face while navigating change. A secret wish comes out in a series of heavily inked nighttime spreads when a siren tears through the quiet: "I wish I had one more Anything. Because I want to go home." Resourceful Daddy provides comfort and creates a new memory, beginning to transform the unfamiliar place into their home. This introspective, sensitive, and stunningly rendered story will encourage families weathering tough transitions and stay with readers for a long time. Adrienne L. Pettinelli

(Copyright 2025 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

Starred review from April 1, 2025
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* When chocolate cake for their new apartment's ""zero-eth"" birthday isn't enough, a dad invites a little girl struggling with change to wish for three ""anythings."" Throughout this unsettling day of getting settled, she ponders many secret wishes, but she carefully spaces out her anything requests: first, a rainbow painted in her new room; next, her favorite pizza for dinner; finally, that today isn't bath-night Thursday after all. Her understanding dad grants each with inspired finesse. When sirens, flashing lights, and wild shadows disturb this first night, she needs one more anything, and her patient papa inventively complies--with a long, comforting piggyback-train ride "back home." In thoughtfully paced compositions evolving from simple vignettes to a detailed, full-color scene when morning brings contentment, prolific, versatile Zhang's loose black line deftly suggests spare spaces and adds resonant details to poignant moments. The simply drawn, expressive faces give distinct individuality to this devoted pair of dad and daughter; rainbows of colorful washes are reserved to unfurl in moments of imagination or emotion. Newbery award winner Stead shows her genius in conjuring an indelible child's voice and view, especially in a series of brilliantly observed sensory memories: the big blue bathtub, the very tall slide, a coat closet's "spicy smell." With its beguiling voice and authentic heart, this picture book is both comfortingly real and deeply true.

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