Title says it all. What does a child pick to bring? With looming danger, she learns what is important to bring.

Ms. Nicholson touches upon a topic that we are certainly dealing with more often than we'd ever imagined. As a forest fire approaches a family is readying to evacuate and must quickly decide what to bring with them. Our focus is on young Malia as she so desperately must choose what is important to her. As she views her room she of course wants to take everything, (LOTS of books is a lovely mention!), but certainly everything won't fit in her small backpack. Mama asks her to only bring three things and to "put the rest in your heart." (If that doesn't make your eyes fill up nothing will). Realistically for her age, she worries about one stuffed animal being sad if she chooses another and finally as the pressure mounts, she whispers her choices into her mother's ear and they leave their home. The illustrations indicate she has what is important to her, her family and pets, but I really thought it was important that the choices were not written. Instead, each child, (and adult), that reads this book is able to think and make their own choices. This is a must have for sharing with family and classrooms. What would you choose? And why? Well done - thank you Ms. Nicholson

Really enjoyed this simple picture book talking about evacuations during disaster. The text and story is simple but provides a good introduction for parents or educators to talk about the need to evacuate with young children.

Wow. This was just fantastic. I loved the illustrations, but the story was just so powerful. I could never imagine being faced with such a devastating decision of what to grab and what to leave behind when it came to a natural disaster, so this really puts things in perspective. The story does a really great job of invoking the emotion that's running through everyone during this time and how scared, panicked, but needing to remain somewhat calm everyone is. I thought that was really great. And in the end, she realizes that all she needs is her family, her dog, and her cat and she'll be okay. The rest is just stuff. I thought that was really powerful.

In this book, the family is forced to evacuate due to a forest fire. The young girl is forced to decide which special items she can grab. This would be a great book to use as a writing prompt for a personal essay. .

Simple prose and vibrant illustrations bring to life the scenario of a family forced to leave their home due to the threat of wildfire. We see the day through young Malia's eyes, as she has to decide what to take and what to leave behind. Very well gone, gentle and age appropriate for young elementary age.

What to Bring by Lorna Schultz Nicholson is an emotional story about an issue that is becoming all too common the world over, and that is children who are fleeing their homes from some form of danger. In this beautifully illustrated story, Malia and her family must decide what they can take with them in a hurry as they flee from a wildfire. As little Malia struggles with what to bring as the family evacuates their home, she comes to realize that the safety of her small family and pets is paramount, and she knows that if they are safe she has everything she needs.

This is such an important story and one that will potentially open a dialogue with children about some of the global dangers that we are facing with increasing frequency, but in a gentle and relatable way. Recommended.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Owlkids Books for an ARC.

When there has to be a picture book for something, you know it is becoming too common. In this case, wild fires. And having to evacuate from same.

And as one who has had to do so, this really hits me in the feels. When you are told to evacuate, as this family is, you have no idea if you will come back to your home or not. The little girl in the story wants to take big things, her tree house, her sandbox, all her toys. And her parents have to explain that she can only take little things.

In the end, she realizes that the things that are really important to her is her family, which is amazingly mature of her.

Beautiful, but sad book. Not because they lose their house. We don’t know what happens, but that it is something this young family, and so many around the world, are experiencing every year.

So, good book in that it takes a hard subject and makes it understandable to young kids.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

A beautiful children's book about what to bring when forced out of one's home. In the book a small child has to decide what to bring when a fire threatens their house. The illustrations were beautiful. This would be an excellent book for inquisitive children to explain why some have to leave their homes and go to new places.

An important (and unfortunately current) topic of what to take with you when fleeing one's home. What is too big? What is small enough to carry? How many things can you bring? An excellent conversation starter for small children and a good way to bring more information to kids who may be seeing wildfires and evacuations on the news, and have no context for what they mean. A little too heavy for a read-aloud at a storytime, but perhaps not when shared with a lesson on the same topic, on current events, or a read at home, safe and sound.