A long car ride to Nana's house becomes an opportunity for adventure in the fabulously fanciful Mia's Cheetah by author/illustrator Amelia Bothe (Ellie Has a Secret).
Mia, her dad, and their dog, George, climb into the car and head to Nana's. The ride is "very long" and Mia, a Black girl wearing pink hair beads in her puffs and a matching pink shirt, is quickly bored. "Looks like someone hasn't met her cheetah yet," Dad says. The cheetah runs "right outside your window, when you're going just as fast as they are." Mia's not convinced, until "something about the wind whistling through her fingers" feels like "breezy, spotted fur." She looks outside her window and sees a spectacular pink cheetah with butterfly wings "taking flight." All manner of magical creatures (a purple anteater, a capybara mermaid) race beside the car, and Mia understands that a "cheetah" doesn't have to be "a cheetah at all." Nothing bothers the cheetahs and "the ride no longer bother[s] Mia." As the family nears Nana's house, Mia doesn't want to say good-bye to her new friends--until she realizes she'll get to see her cheetah again on the ride home.
Bothe's inventive text sets up Dad's clever prompt as a catalyst to engage Mia, forestall her boredom and turn a mundane car ride into a fantastical odyssey. Glorious magentas, golds, and blues shine in Bothe's exuberant digital illustrations of "cheetahs" running, flying, and fluttering through suburban, rural, and urban settings. Playful endpapers add to the whimsy. Mia's Cheetah transforms an endless, all-too-relatable road trip into a glorious, magical parade of inspired animal chaperones. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author