Kirkus calls Jashar Awan’s LOOPS a “paean to practice and patience” that “cleverly draws connections between ‘learning to be a big kid’ and never giving up” in starred review

★ LOOPS by Jashar Awan
Publication Date: March 3, 2026

“Mastering the mystery of laces is the name of the game in this paean to practice and patience.

Our brown-skinned, dark-haired, hoodie-wearing hero bursts onto the page wearing only one shoe; the other one, which the little one apparently kicked off, lies a few feet away. “I can’t keep losing these shoes,” the child laments. “My first ones with laces.” The obvious solution? “I gotta tie them tight this time.” An illustrated, somewhat intimidating guide depicts every step of the shoe-tying process. Frustration is inevitable, but the protagonist is remarkably mature in the face of failure. “That could’ve been worse. Next time will be better!” is a mantra few would dispute. And even though the child does repeatedly lose a shoe along the way, the little one perseveres. A meta ending—in which the youngster runs to the front of the book to retrieve the lost shoe—brings the story full circle while drilling home a lesson in persistence. What Stephanie V.W. Lucianovic and Chris Park’s Touch the Sky (2024) did for learning to swing, Awan’s tale does for shoe-tying. Backgrounds are generally single-color, uncluttered—except for playground equipment—backdrops against which our hero clearly pops.

Cleverly draws connections between “learning to be a big kid” and never giving up—life lessons worth learning. (Picture book. 3-7)”