Choose Tameka Fryer Brown and Shane Evans’ My Cold Plum Lemon Pie Bluesy Mood (2013) or Judith Viorst and Ray Cruz’s classic Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day (1972) instead. In a critical misstep for a book for fostering emotional literacy, narrator Keya says Hooper looks “way past mad”-echoing an earlier description of Keya-while the illustrations clearly show him as hurt, not angry. A “gold medal like sunshine” that Keya wins in the imagined race is barely visible. Many illustrations are too uniformly saturated, with the composition offering no clear place to focus.

Keya’s glorious, lively black curls are de la Prada’s best visual. Keya and her family present white and Hooper, black. Aside from twice waxing poetic (“The kind of mad that starts / and swells / and spreads like a rash”), Adelman’s prose is dull and declarative (“Then we joked and laughed. Keya bursts out, “I don’t like you, Hooper.” It’s not true, of course, and they make up after a sweetly responsible apology. A fantasy race ensues, briefly cathartic, but Keya’s temper explodes after a knee-scraping tumble. Hooper, Keya’s friend, offers a cheerful greeting, but Keya darts away. Protagonist Keya fumes when younger brother Nate gives Keya’s cereal to the dog and cuts holes in Keya’s favorite hat. Thanks to her awesome husband, her married name will place her work on the first shelf in the bookstore.Anger at a sibling gets taken out on a friend. Hallee has two amazing daughters and mohawked dogs named Romeo and May. She has been honored to support child/teen-focused organizations such as Donors Choose, Franklin Institute, CHOP, Simon’s Heart, and the Wissahickon Charter Schools. Adelman advocates for quality education and has worked with local businesses and SDP to provide internships for District students. She was determined to unleash the extraordinary talents of her elementary through university students. Mixing her desire to imagine with a quest to explore and share, Hallee became a teacher and earned a PhD.

She also traveled to space in her under-the-desk rocket, built snow castles for faraway kingdoms, sewed clothing for stuffed animals, and climbed trees taller than the sun (even after falling into a trash can). During her early years, Hallee re-envisioned neighborhood games like wire ball and Dungeons & Dragons.

Way Past Worried by Hallee Adelman