Shelf Awareness--Ren's Pencil

PB Review: Ren's Pencil

Ren's Pencil by Bo Lu (Abrams Books for Young Readers, 40p., ages 4-8, 9781419769221, February 3, 2026)

Tender and dreamlike, Ren's Pencil by Bo Lu (Bao's Doll) depicts imagination and a "magic" pencil helping ease one girl's transition from her life in "the East" to an unfamiliar new home in "the West."

Ren loves "magical stories... where a brush [makes] pictures come alive." She, Popo, and Popo's yellow-orange cat snuggle and imagine themselves together in books about "princesses trapped under pagodas, rescued by fairies," and other magical tales "from the East." Then one day Ren's parents tell her they're "moving to the West" so they can "build something new." Ren desperately wants to stay where she is with Popo. But Popo hands Ren a pencil and gently assures her she will make her own magic in the West.

When Ren gets there, everything is different. Faces and hair are "unusual colors" and even her name is wrong; she's told that in school she'll be called Lauren. Words in books look like "upside-down letters" and Ren cannot "imagine herself in these stories." When she misunderstands the word "short" while getting a haircut, she can't even recognize her own face in the mirror afterward. Ren longs to be "with Popo and her magical stories"--"maybe everything would feel right again."

Just then, a flash of yellow-orange streaks by. Ren chases a giant cat, who invites her to "hop on," and she enters a dreamscape of "strange trees and houses" and "upside-down letters" that dance in the sky. A yellow orange-haired princess in a tower needs saving and, when no fairies appear, Ren sees the "soft glow" of the pencil Popo gave her: "Make your own magic." Ren does just that and saves the princess, with whom she begins to share her drawings. In time and with hard work, Ren begins to make friends and, "like magic," letters begin to make sense.

Bo Lu's expressive language feels intensely personal as she relates how Ren uses her pencil to communicate and create her own "something new." Lu's pencil, watercolor, and digital illustrations are soft with dark blues and purples to indicate the world of stories; she switches styles to include naïve art for the drawings done by Ren herself. Lu seamlessly entwines Ren's inner and outer lives as she portrays how important imagination is when coping with uncertainty. Art and storytelling provide a familiar place wherein Ren can learn to paint her new and old homes together into stories where she belongs. --Lynn Becker, reviewer, blogger, and children's book author. Originally printed in Shelf Awareness.