Robinson captures the vivacity of the New York City subway with his acrylic paint and collage and faux naïve style, while other spreads show Milo’s childlike crayon drawings. “Maybe you can’t really know anyone just by looking at their face,” thinks Milo.

Initially, this appears to be a story about how being observant feeds the creative process, but when Milo and his sister arrive at the prison where their mother is incarcerated, the white boy from the train is also there to visit his own mother. Maybe the wedding dress lady and her groom will take flight in a hot air balloon after the ir nuptials. Maybe the little white boy in a suit lives in a castle. Maybe the whiskered man doing crosswords lives all alone with parakeets and a cat. Big sister is glued to her cell phone and bespectacled Milo draws the lives he imagines for other passengers on the train. This time, Milo and his teen sister, who are both Black, take a long subway ride together. K-Gr 3–The creators of the Newbery Award-winning Last Stop on Market Street team up for another journey with a life lesson on a child’s level. But when the boy in the suit gets off on the same stop as Milo-walking the same path, going to the exact same place-Milo realizes that you can’t really know anyone just by looking at them.Full-color illustrations were created with acrylic paint, collage, and “a bit of digital manipulation.” And then there’s the boy in the suit with the bright white sneakers Milo imagines him arriving home to a castle with a drawbridge and a butler.

There’s the wedding-dressed woman with a little dog peeking out of her handbag Milo imagines her in a grand cathedral ceremony. There’s the whiskered man with the crossword puzzle Milo imagines him playing solitaire in a cluttered apartment full of pets. To pass the time, he studies the faces around him and makes pictures of their lives. Milo is on a long subway ride with his older sister. The team behind the Newbery Medal winner and Caldecott Honor book Last Stop on Market Streetand the award-winning New York Times bestseller Carmela Full of Wishes once again delivers a poignant and timely picture book that’s sure to become an instant classic.

Milo matt de la pena