The raccoons in this picture book have a gentle little life.  Our raccoon child and her mother go through a whole day together from waking up to bedtime.  Short two-line text narrates.  Each page includes one of the following phrases: “Please pick me up, Mama” or, alternately, “Please put me down, Mama.”  Many of the phrases paired with these first lines involve actions a parent and child could do together while reading the book.  This makes it a nice choice for storytime, as a third party could hold the book and read the words, while the parent and child pairings could act out the text.

The illustrations are gentle, but bright, and realistic, in an anthropomorphized-animals kind of way.  The end papers deserve special mention, as the end papers at the beginning of the book are lovely clouds and at the end of the book are stars in a night sky.  In a field of many similar books, this title is exceptionally well executed.