Hold by Randy Ribay & Zeke Peña

What a charming throwback this is to the days when my young children would fixate on a seemingly simple thing and take it to often hilarious extremes!

A child and their dad are getting ready to leave the house when Dad makes a seemingly innocuous request, extending a water bottle to Child and saying, “Hold, please.” Soon, the child wants to hold eeeeeeeverything and take it with them on their walk, from expected things like stuffies to less common choices like their long-suffering cat.

Even when they go outside, Child wants to hold a tree and a plane and someone else’s baby, leading Dad to have to come up with acceptable substitutes (and head right back indoors.) The real challenge tho happens when Child realizes that they can’t hold everything… but maybe they can hold the most important thing.

This is a very cute story with terrific art that perfectly evokes the madcap emotions of toddlerhood. Child is incredibly expressive as they realize that there are so many things they could hold. Dad’s resigned expression is hilarious… tho if I’m being completely honest, it’s also a little bewildering.

And look, my sister often accuses me of gentle parenting because I rarely yell at my kids. Personally, I’ve found that people respond best to directions when they understand why they ought to do things and aren’t just being coerced because an authority figure said so. I’m also big on letting my kids feel their feelings and talk things out.

But I also say no to them, and I don’t understand why the dad in this book doesn’t take the entirely reasonable position of curbing Child’s most unrealistic choices. I’m still hung up on the idea of Child carrying their poor cat around outdoors: that’s just a recipe for disaster for everyone involved. Modeling a reasonable “no” is a really important thing to show kids, so they know how to deal with rejection and how to decline things themselves in turn. You can’t always get what you want how you want it, and it’s important that kids learn how to negotiate that in a healthy way.

The ending is very sweet tho. If at all possible, try to get a physical copy of this book, as the paper choices are outstanding and really suit the artistic style.

Hold by Randy Ribay & Zeke Peña was published April 21 2026 by Kokila and is available from all good booksellers, including