Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick. Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug.

The author’s note touches on climate change, the illegal ivory trade, and conservation efforts, but the highly emotive framing of the story through the memories of a bewildered baby elephant emphasizes the impact of lines such as “ ‘in Africa,’ I say softly, ‘there were bad people,’ ” without offering readers a nuanced understanding of the broader context that drives poaching. Applegate deftly tempers themes of grief and loss with compassion and humor as Ruby finds her place in the herd. Goofy, playful, and mischievous Ruby is fully dimensional, as she has shown her bravery during the many hardships of her young life. An elephant glossary and Castelao’s charming, illustrated guide to elephant body language help immerse readers in Ruby’s world.

The unexpected arrival of someone from Ruby’s past life on the savanna revives memories both warmly nostalgic and deeply traumatic. Ruby was born in an unspecified part of Africa, later ending up on display in the mall, where she met Ivan, Bob, and Julia. Luckily, she can confide in her Uncle Ivan, who is next door in Gorilla World, and Uncle Bob, the dog who lives nearby with human friend Julia. She’s apprehensive about her Tuskday, a rite of passage for young elephants when she’ll give a speech in front of the rest of the herd. In this follow-up to 2020’s The One and Only Bob, Ruby the elephant is still living at Wildworld Zoological Park and Sanctuary.

White star by marty crisp