Just What to Do

A tender picture book about grief and the many ways to offer comfort in sad times, from Newbery Honor-winner Kyle Lukoff.

When you see someone sad, it's only natural to want to cheer them up. But how? Some people like hugs but others don't. Sometimes a  joke is more comforting than a card. How can you do the just-right-thing if you don't know what it is? 

With its spare, poignant text and unexpectedly levitous illustrations, Just What to Do offers an important lesson about how to offer comfort to loved ones by setting aside your assumptions and following their lead.SLJ Best Books of the Year
Chicago Public Library Best of the Best
ALSC 2025 Children's Notable List Book

★ "Handling death and grief in a gentle and tender manner, Lukoff’s newest picture book explores the innate need many of us have to fix the problems of the ones we love the most...[This is] a beautiful story that should be sitting on the shelves of school counselors and child therapists everywhere." – School Library Journal, starred review

“Both Newbery Honoree Lukoff’s text and Tahboub’s illustrations convey a stillness that will make this often-difficult topic comprehensible to a young audience…This book is the perfect complement to Cori Doerrfeld’s The Rabbit Listened.” – KirkusKyle Lukoff is the author of many books for young readers. His debut middle-grade novel, Too Bright To See, received a Newbery honor, the Stonewall award, and was a National Book Award finalist. His picture book When Aidan Became A Brother also won the Stonewall. He has forthcoming books about mermaids, babies, apologies, and lots of other topics. While becoming a writer he worked as a bookseller for ten years, and then nine more years as a school librarian.

Hala Tahboub is a children’s book writer and illustrator. She started her creative journey as an architect and interior designer. She won the SCBWI Canada East chapter’s Storyteller Award for Illustration in 2019, and she was the SCBWI’s December Featured Illustrator in 2020. Hala believes in kindness, coffee, chocolate, and in the immense power of stories. She lives in Montreal.
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