Chris Kersh: Gabe and the Mirrowarp, Kartoniert / Broschiert

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Nora is the new kid, and she draws comics. Then she meets a girl who draws perfect dragons, and suddenly her own hero feels small. Bean-size small. That's when a round gray bird waddles out of the coat closet, holding a tiny mirror. It's a Mirrowarp, a beast made of comparing, and only Nora can see it. Every time she thinks "she's better than me," the mirror bends to show her tiny next to giant golden kids. Worse, the lie starts spreading, until every spoon, puddle, and window in town whispers the same thing: hide your stuff, stay quiet, don't even try.

Help crash-lands in the leaf pile. Gabe is an Agent Angel who tells the worst knock-knock jokes in heaven and is amazed by everything on Earth, especially toasters. He left his wings at home (he always lands in a tree), and he's a little scared of the foghorn. Gabe can hold the bird back, but he can't beat it for her. Only Nora can, and it starts with the bravest thing a third grader can do: saying one true thing out loud, and showing her real work where everyone can see. But the school Art Wall goes up on Friday, and the Mirrowarp is learning to talk back.

At its heart is one warm idea: the King makes originals and never copies, so there is only one of you in the whole world, and your honest, messy, real thing beats a perfect fake one every time. Nora learns that comparing herself to everyone else only shrinks her, and that the win isn't loud or magic but one true sentence, said out loud even with shaky knees. She also discovers that the girl she envied wanted to be her friend all along, and ends up welcoming a brand-new kid exactly the way she was welcomed. Parents of sensitive or anxious kids will recognize this beast on sight.

Faith here is simple and warm, the way a nervous kid needs it. Gabe calls prayer sending a little note upstairs to the King, and He always listens. The Christian values are lived out in the story, never delivered as a lecture.

Good to know before you buy: it's written for ages 6 to 9, read aloud from 6 and self-read by most kids at 7 or 8, with short chapters and black-and-white illustrations throughout. The beast is funny, never scary, and keeps walking into fences and even loses to a chicken. This is a complete story with a real ending (Book 2 of the Agent Angels series, and it reads great on its own).

Hand this one to any kid who has ever felt like everyone else is better at it. Fair warning: you will be asked to do Gabe's flubbed interrupting-cow joke at bedtime. He forgets the words on purpose.