Everything Is Grape!
by Alastair Heim; illus. by Michelle Tran
Primary    Holt    32 pp.
10/24    9781250891419    $18.99
e-book ed.  9781250406361    $11.99

Two friends meet in the park. One holds up a grape. “Is this a grape? It is shaped like a grape.” The second friend confirms the obvious, to which the first replies: “Well then, I guess you could say it is in grape shape.” As they walk through the park, the punny friend sees only that fruit: “This grape is shaped like a box”; “This bunch of grapes is shaped like a beehive.” The more literal friend plays it straight: “No. That is a box. It is shaped like a box”; “That is a hive full of bees.” Tran’s fanciful digital illustrations enhance the book’s breezy tone; comic-style panels and double-page spreads advance the story and add expression to Heim’s cheeky all-dialogue text. When the two characters encounter a giraffe-shaped grape, things take a wildly unexpected turn as they find themselves riding the giraffe (“How did we even get up here???”), then inexplicably hanging on to the tail of a kite-shaped grape in the sky. While the grape-focused friend is up for the flight, their clear-eyed pal is less than enthusiastic (“Please just get us down”). The sweet reason for the grape day makes sense at book’s end, and the message underneath all the silliness comes through.

From the ">January/February 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.