Lizzy, a thoughtful light-skinned child with a mass of curly hair, lives with her parents on a previous era's city street, where zeppelins hover and pigeons flock and oranges cost a penny. Even though "clouds were a bit out of fashion," one Saturday at the park, Lizzy buys a cloud on a string from the umbrella-hatted Cloud Seller, who offers a range of puffy mists in various sizes and shapes. Lizzy names the cloud Milo, and tends it carefully, following the instructions in a single-page manual: watering it daily, walking it, and letting it soar out the window on its string. But Milo grows and grows, and it's not long before a thunderstorm in Lizzy's room nudges her toward the realization that Milo can't remain pent-up; soon, she frees it with an air of quiet accomplishment. In delicate gray shading and faded colors, the Fan Brothers' (It Fell from the Sky) dreamy, alternative world offers a vision of a different kind of pet, a being that obligingly rains on Lizzy's plants (a small, faint rainbow hovering just beneath it), alongside an understated meditation on change and letting go. Ages 4--8. (May)

The Fan Brothers once again bring soft, detailed whimsy to young readers, this time in the story of Lizzy, a curly-haired girl who becomes the proud owner of a cloud. During a walk in the park, Lizzy visits the cloud vendor, who sells his wares like balloons. While the clouds come in many shapes--mainly fluffy animals--Lizzie opts for a regular puff, taking its string and new owner's manual in hand. The girl follows the care instructions carefully, watering the cloud (which she names Milo) and taking it for walks, but as Milo grows it becomes discontent and, on one occasion, thunderous. It's bittersweet when Lizzie realizes that an apartment is no place for a cloud and releases it. The Fan Brothers give an original tweak to the too-big-pet story line, often seen with dinosaurs, that will charm readers of all ages. The limited use of color--buttery yellow, cornflower blue, sherbet green--lends extra magic to the finely lined pencil drawings, especially where a faint rainbow glistens in the cloud's mist. A sweet, imaginative tale.