Raddie, a little mouse, has just suffered the death of her grandmother, and she "can't stop crying." Interestingly, this Korean import focuses not on Raddie but on her friend Hank, who tries to cheer up Raddie. When he fails, he turns to their group of friends, and together they create a friendship quilt. All that sewing is hard work, but when they present it to Raddie, they describe its deeper meaning. In a series of illustrations set upon different patterned backgrounds, each mouse declares what makes her or his scrap important. "This piece is from my favorite dress. I looked so pretty in it." "This is a piece of my pillowcase. I cried in it and felt better." It's a simple, sweet idea, presented by Kim in a straightforward manner and illustrated by Jeong in soft watercolors that make the mice characters cuddly and reassuring. There is enough different here from similar stories to make it valuable r example, the quick aside that Hank's grandmother and mother are no longer living reinforces the idea that grief is universal.

Each of these Korean imports delivers a lesson--e.g., "responsibility," "teamwork," "having confidence,"--and includes suggestions of activities for applying it (e.g., Zippy encourages kids to "create a vision board" to practice "having hope"). The didactic stories are uniformly stilted and saccharine, though a variety of illustration styles feature vibrantly-colored characters (mostly animals) cheerfully learning social behaviors. There are six other fall 2014 books in this series.