Loula is fed up with brothers who won't let her play with them. The obvious solution is getting herself a sister. Her straightforward request is met with some uncomfortable parental stalling. "Making a sister is . . . well, it's like making a cake. You need the right ingredients." So Loula and family chauffeur Gilbert go out in search of the ingredients: chocolate, butterflies in the stomach, a full moon, a candlelit supper, and kisses and hugs. The end result of Loula's efforts is charming, funny, and inventive ough the final act is not what you might expect. Villeneuve's watercolors reflect Loula's buoyancy, her head bobbing high as if ready to float away on sheer exuberance. Like the good-humored Gilbert, the reader tags along, humoring Loula and wondering how it will all end. Villeneuve repeats much of the formula that worked so well in Loula Is Leaving for Africa (2013), pitching the humor just right. Loula is a delight and deserves a place among Fancy Nancy and Eloise.

Brother-fatigued Loula asks her parents for a sister. They tell her that "making a sister is...like making a cake," so she and the family's chauffeur gather ingredients. This follow-up is as good as Loula Is Leaving for Africa: both use nimble watercolors to show a girl blessed with Eloise-like privilege and spunk going to imaginative lengths to address a problem.

PreS-Gr 1 Stuck with hellion triplet brothers who exclude her from their rowdy games, Loula dreams of having a sister who'd appreciate gentler pursuits. When she asks her parents for a new sibling, they hem and haw and tell her that "making a sister&30;it's like making a cake." According to them, the process requires the perfect ingredientsbutterflies in the stomach, a candlelit supper, kisses and hugs, and a mama and papa. Encouraged, intrepid Loula ropes the family chauffeur into helping her acquire the necessary items. Her efforts pay off, though not quite in the way she expected. Instead of producing a sister, Loula's moonlit feast attracts a huge stray that, despite being a "mister," turns out to be the perfect companion for the little girl. Villeneuve's dainty ink lines awash with soft watercolors dance off the page, as exuberant as little Loula. Many small details, such as Loula tottering in her mother's heels across the verso or her pink toy cat, add extra humor and charm to this sweet and funny story. Though young readers might miss the joke behind the "sister recipe," they are sure to be amused by Loula's whimsical antics and relate to her need to find that perfect friend. Yelena Alekseyeva-Popova, formerly at Chappaqua Library, NY