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9781620142509

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"""Young readers are sure to want to join Pablo, Lily, and all of their friends, and it's wonderful to note that the diverse characterization will aid in making many feel all the more included."" -- Kirkus Reviews Junior Library Guild Selection CCBC Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)"

Young readers are sure to want to join Pablo, Lily, and all of their friends, and it's wonderful to note that the diverse characterization will aid in making many feel all the more included. -- Kirkus Reviews Junior Library Guild Selection Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

In the companion title to Yoo and Ng-Benitez's Lily's New Home, Lily enjoys playing with a diverse group of friends in her new neighborhood. A helpful title-page illustration introduces Lily and her friends, Henry, Mei, Pablo, and Padma, by name in order to support new readers in keeping track of them from one page to the next. Then, the first brief chapter opens with Pablo heading outside to read after being distracted by his sisters' indoor play. He abandons his book, however, when Lily comes by with her mother and invites him to go to the park. They are soon joined by Mei, Henry, and Padma, and they go on the swings, play basketball, and climb on the play structure. Ng-Benitez's inviting multimedia art deftly conveys a shift when the children's play moves into imaginary scenarios as verso-page depictions of the playground come into dialogue with facing recto images of imagined scenes in a cave, at the beach, in space, and so on. When rain threatens, the children all go to Pablo's house where they join his sisters in their play. Young readers are sure to want to join Pablo, Lily, and all of their friends, and it's wonderful to note that the diverse characterization will aid in making many feel all the more included. -- Kirkus Reviews This book was enjoyable. My favorite part is when they are pretending to be at the beach because the descriptions and pictures look and sound so real. I give this book 5 out of 5 stars and recommend it for ages 6 to 7. I recommend this book to kids that like to play with their friends and have big imaginations. -- 5 Girls Book Reviews While Paula Yoo has written excellent books for older readers, she proves herself to be just as good at writing for new readers, which is no easy task. Although the story lines are simple, she adds depth to each one. In Lily's New Home the diversity that defines the city becomes part of the story line, and in Want to Play? the children's imaginary play (so well reflected in Shirley Ng-Benitez's illustrations) makes the playground even more fun. Most remarkably, Yoo and Ng-Benitez together have created truly engaging child characters living in a vivid realistic world with just a few masterful lines of text and ink. I hope these will be the first two volumes of a long and successful series about the five friends. What a great beginning for Dive into Reading! -- and for brand new readers. -- Reading While White Junior Library Guild Selection, Junior Library Guild Choices, Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)

Author Information

Paula Yoo is an author and screenwriter whose children's books for Lee & Low include Sixteen Years in Sixteen Seconds, Shining Star, and several titles in the Confetti Kids series. Her titles have been recognized by the International Reading Association, the Texas Bluebonnet Award Masterlist, and Lee & Low's New Voices Award. She and her husband live in Los Angeles, California, where she works in television. You can visit her online at paulayoo.com. Shirley Ng-Benitez is a Bay Area children's book author/illustrator who has illustrated 35+ children's books, and has a background in Graphic Design (GabbyandCo.com), and hand-lettering (American Greetings, Inc.). She works and experiments in traditional mediums including watercolor, gouache, pen&ink, oils, and painted & cut-paper collage. Her work draws from a deep wish to add more compassion and connection in the world through her art and stories. She founded @AWEtober on Instagram, an annual art auction fundraiser since '20, whose efforts have raised tens of thousands for various organizations supporting victims of the California wildfires, and efforts in coral reef restoration around the globe. She lives with her family and two black cats, and is thrilled to be working on her debut picture book, DOWN, THROUGH, UP by Quill Tree Books, Winter '25. Please visit shirleyngbenitez.com for more.

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