Lizzy and the Cloud is a 2022 picture book by the Fan Brothers (Terry and Eric). It is a book with good, sweeping art, some lessons, and considerable whimsy.
The book opens with the normal: Lizzy goes on walks with her parents every Saturday. This Saturday, though, in a nice touch of magical realism, there’s a man selling clouds in the park. These clouds are of many different shapes, but Lizzy buys “an ordinary cloud,” kind of a white and gray blob, rather than the one shaped like an octopus or the other shaped like a parrot.
She walks home with it, names it (Milo) and reads the instructions on how to care for a cloud. She waters Milo, walks him, cares for him, and lets him enjoy rainy days. Milo gets bigger and bigger and bigger, until he’s dominating the upper parts of the pages–and Lizzy’s life.
After Milo throws a tantrum in the house (he rains), Lizzy remembers one key rule she had forgotten: “Never confine a cloud to a small space.” And Lizzy lets Milo go, but she watches the skies for him, thinks of him, and waves at clouds that look like him.
A good book on learning, change, rules, and caring.
