Hand-Me-Down Bunnie: Found by Salina Yoon

ONE DAY BEAR FOUND SOMETHING IN THE FOREST.

HE THOUGHT IT WAS THE MOST SPECIAL THING HE'D EVER SEEN.

It is love at first sight when Bear spots a white bunny lost in the woods. He's the stuffed toy that Bear has always wanted, and he carries him carefully home and gives him the choice spot on his bed.

But somehow the little white bunny seems sad, and Bear wonders if someone somewhere is sad, too, missing his bunny buddy. So Bear prints out some LOST fliers and dutifully posts them on the fir trees in the woods.

But nobody claims the soft little white bunny toy, and Bear begins to feel that he might just get to keep him after all. Bear sets out for home with Bunny nestled on his shoulder.

The next day Bear celebrates his new friend with a picnic. But as they are picking berries and having a grand time together, a tall Moose passes by.

"FLOPPY?? MY BUNNY??" MOOSE CALLS OUT.

Moose hugs his long-lost toy. Bear can see that Moose is Floppy's original owner and tries to look happy for him, hiding a tear. But then...

"WAIT!" SAYS MOOSE.

Moose senses that it's time to pass his special friend on to someone just right to love him, in Salina Yoon's Found (Walker Books, 2014). Yoon's little twice-lost-and-found toy story is simple, but with a lot of heart, with two characters who gently teach that a good deed is best done just because it's the right thing to do. Yoon's illustrations are also simple, with thick dark outlines for her characters, but she artfully uses just few lines to convey a lot of feeling in their facial features and body language. This one is a warm little parable of the power of empathy, the ability to intuit the feelings of another. "A thoughtful, flawlessly executed exploration of theory of mind and emotional intelligence," says Publishers Weekly.