We love Out of Nowhere. It is Chris Naylor-Ballesteros’s follow-up to The Suitcase, quieter and a little braver.
Beetle and Caterpillar are best friends. Every day they sit on a big rock in the forest, share a picnic, and look out over the trees. Then one day Caterpillar is gone. Beetle searches. Beetle worries. Beetle gives up. Out of nowhere, a butterfly appears. The reader works out who she is at about the same speed Beetle does.
Naylor-Ballesteros draws the whole book in large-scale black-and-white pencil with pops of red. The art alone is worth the time. What we think of as the craft move is that the book says almost nothing about what has happened to Caterpillar. The reader sees the transformation, Beetle sees a stranger, and the book lets the reader be a step ahead of the character without being smug about it.
Nosy Crow published it. It was shortlisted for the Kate Greenaway Medal in 2020. We pack it into class sets when we feel a Reception could use a picture book that is gentle without being soft.