My Barefoot Press dealer gave me several books recently. Between them and an older package I had just gotten to, I was in deep with board books. Now, I was not the audience for Eleni Tassopoulous’s Roscoe & Ivy series, but I grew to appreciate them. 
The Clean-Up Monster (Roscoe & Ivy) is illustrated by Danamarie Hosler. This is, without any background, chunky to read. There was something off to it. My first thought was that it was a translation. But research showed (and my second thought) that the children are neurodivergent. The book is written for children like Roscoe and Ivy. What a concept! Most books I have found don’t do this, as they are more for the siblings or classmates, other neurotypical children. And the story shows what happens is something that even neurotypical children have issues with: Clean up. The issues with sound and doing the activity because there are distractions comes into play, but who doesn’t have issues with distractions, or issues with trying to pick up? And many children have the monster as the vacuum. Be it a real or imagined scary thing, the “monster” comes into the situation with them. And so forth.
With My Dinosaur Shoes (Roscoe & Ivy) by Tassopoulos Wehner and Hosler again, we have the issues of new things and change. The new shoes are unfamiliar, the old shoes comfortable. But the way the new shoes are introduced, making them familiar and normal, again works for any child. Heck, it works for me, too! I love my old sneakers and really fight myself to wear the new ones! Who doesn’t love an old, comfortable friend?
The illustrations are not really my personal tastes (the noses are a little off for me), but they get the job done. They work for what needs to be shown and said. They are colorful, simple and have character. Extras are included at the end to “wrap things up” as well. There are two other Roscoe and Ivy books Always Pasta or The Waiting Room (due in 2026) that I have not yet read, but I feel that if you like books that represent different types of people, you’ll need these, too. Plus, you can find (or soon) all titles in Spanish-English as well as solo English.
