The power of imagination conquers loneliness in this rhyming companion to Yolen’s What to Do with a Box about where a piece of string can take you. A girl uses a string to play games, ride whales, and take various adventures when things at her house are “incredibly dull.” When the resourceful girl is lonely, her cat offers to call using a string phone, dispelling her blues. Payne utilizes a myriad of media, including graphite, watercolor, colored pencil, acrylics, and oil washes, to create a joyful interpretation of Yolen’s text. Real estate in the book is used to great effect through changing perspective and full-bleed illustrations that drive readers onward. Pair with Antoinette Portis’s Not a Box or Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s Also an Octopus for storytime. A delightful read-aloud addition to most collections.
–Jennifer Knight, School Library Journal, 11/2/2019
