Patty Brozo

Sirena spends part of every summer in a rambling lakehouse filled with cousins, aunts and uncles, and her beloved Poppo (her grandfather). But despite how inviting the water looks, Sirena hates swimming. Until Poppo's gentle words and example tempt Sirena into the water to discover the joys of swimming--until she's a veritable mermaid. As their lakeside vacation ends, Sirena discovers that her present is tied more closely to Poppo's past that she imagined. This is a tender story about the power of intergenerational relationships and overcoming your fears.

Buddy Benches were introduced in Germany in 2014. When a child sits on the bench, it signals to other children to ask him or her to play. Patty Brozo’s children bring a playground to raucous life while Mike Deas’s illustrations invest their games with images of planes, dragons and elephants. The children match their imaginations with empathy, identifying and swooping up the lonely.

"Rosy-cheeked and quite antique, Miss Pinkeltink / carried everything but the kitchen sink. / Her purse was so big that it dragged on the floor. / When she rode on the bus it got stuck in the door." Generous and eccentric, Miss Pinkeltink fills her huge purse with everything from a toilet plunger to roller skates, and then gives it all away. She offers tape to fix a flat tire and a bone to a kitty: Miss Pinkeltink’s gifts never quite hit the mark, / but she gave what she had, and she gave from the heart. And then, with nothing left to give or to shelter herself, she huddles on a park bench, trying to sleep in the rain. And that’s where Zoey sees her from her bedroom window and knows that something must be done.