Elspeth Lorraine

Often when a friend or loved one is grieving it’s hard to know what to do. Just What to Do offers a unique roadmap. 

When our young protagonist learns his brother’s cactus died he thinks he knows just what to do. But his brother doesn’t want a painting of the cactus, he wants to hear a joke to get his mind off things. So when his cousin’s goldfish dies he knows just what to do! Tell her a joke! But she doesn’t want a joke, she wants a warm hug. Every time he thinks he has cracked what a grieving person needs, it changes. Confused and unsure when his best friend’s grandma dies, he thinks and thinks before asking, “Can you tell me what to do?” Together he and his best friend work to find out how best to comfort her. His honesty and listening are the key to knowing what to do. Newbery Honor-winner Kyle Lukoff and Hala Tahboub both did an excellent job balancing the seriousness of the topic with an easy to understand approach for kids. 

Bits and Pieces: The art was created with digital tools and the sparse lines and shading lent a seriousness to this picture book that was just right. At one point our MC brings an apple and an unpeeled banana on a plate as a snack to his sad babysitter and it made me giggle. What a wholesome snack! 

Not Sure About: This is directly related to my own struggles drawing eyes, but the eyes of all the characters in this book were a little spooky. No whites around the pupils, just color!

Favorite Part: I’ve got to give a shout out to our MC’s fashion sense. We’re talking a newsboy cap, red sneakers, jean shorts/pants? And the perfect fall sweater? And I had to laugh at his parent’s millennial green couch. The best line? When the MC asks what he should do to help his best friend and she says she isn’t sure what to do, the next page says, “So we figured it out.”