Kirkus calls MIA’S CHEETAH by Amelia Bothe “a joyful, mesmerizing celebration of imagination” in starred review

★ MIA'S CHEETAH by Amelia Bothe
Review Issue Date: July 1, 2026
Online Publish Date: June 1, 2026
Publisher:Clarion/HarperCollins
Publication Date: September 29, 2026
Section: Children's

“A restless girl discovers that the world outside a car window is anything but boring—if you know how to look.

Mia’s reluctant to get into the car for the long drive to Nana’s, but soon she is wedged in the backseat—feet up, face set in a magnificent scowl, squeezed both physically and mentally. Bothe’s illustration is so precisely rendered that any child who has ever suffered a long car ride will feel it in their bones. When Mia’s father shares a fun game, though, everything changes: He tells her that everyone has a cheetah running alongside their car, keeping pace with them. Dad’s appears first—a sleek big cat with colorful spots trailing streaks as it races beside the vehicle. Mia’s own cheetah is revealed more slowly: first just a swirl of pink and purple streaking past. Then her hand trails out the window into what feels like spotted fur, and finally the creature erupts fully onto the page in blazing pink and gold, butterfly-winged and airborne. From there the highway fills with wonders: A crimson betta fish with streaming fins swims the open sky; a deep purple anteater lopes between lanes; a beluga whale glides serenely above the median. Bothe’s colorful illustrations, created in Adobe Photoshop, are lushly rendered and saturated with jewel-toned blues, sunlit greens, and warm amber light, shifting beautifully from the grounded realism of the opening domestic scenes to full-blown visual spectacle. The affectionate Black father-daughter relationship at the center of this story anchors the fantasy warmly.

A joyful, mesmerizing celebration of imagination. (Picture book. 4-8)”

—Kirkus Reviews