The Zebra Wall Book

The Vorlob family is making preparations. Preparations for the new baby, soon to arrive. Getting ready includes painting a mural in the baby's nursery and making a list of possible names. Adine, age ten, is used to the routine — she has four sisters already: Bernice, Carla, Dot, and Effie. This time, however, the routine is broken. In more ways than one. Most significantly, Aunt Irene will be staying with the Vorlobs until Mrs. Vorlob is rested and back on her feet. Aunt Irene arrives, as does the baby, but nothing goes quite as expected. Especially for Adine.

Publishers Weekly

The softened watercolor worlds of Henkes's picture books sometimes distract readers from his acute understanding of just how harsh life can be. This awareness is glimpsed in his first novel, Two Under Par, but this new one is even more unflinching and more sensitive. Adine Vorlob doesn't like her Aunt Irene, who has a whiskery moustache and a habit of smoking narrow brown cigarettes, and readers will find it all too easy to dislike Irene, too. But she is moving into Adine's room while the Vorlobs adjust to the new baby, which surprises them all by being a boy (Adine's four other siblings are girls). The arrival of this boy breaks family tradition in many ways, not the least of which is the alphabetical order of the girls' namesAdine, Bernice, Carla, Dot and Effie. This is not another new-baby story; Henkes knows that every worry in a child's life has many layers. He depicts Adine's concerns with depth and sweetly persuasive touches of compassion, treating the thoughts and feelings of a 10-year-old with uncanny justice. Ages 8-up. (April)