Hurricane Henry — Rita Murphy

Henry is a hurricane! Everyone thinks so. Everyone except Lila. When Lila meets Henry, she sees more than a hurricane, and when Henry meets Lila, he sees more than the new girl at school. Henry teaches Lila how to do kickflips and paint with her eyes closed. Lila teaches Henry how to do yoga and read a book all the way through. Henry and Lila do everything together. But when spring vacation arrives and Lila and her family go to the ocean and Henry and his family go to the mountains, nothing is the same. Not until Henry and Lila remember that true friends bring out the best in one another wherever they are. This touching and colorfully illustrated picture book celebrates the beauty of differences and shows that all things are possible when friends see the best in one another.

Rita Murphy is the author of five young adult novels with Random House Children's Books: Bird, Looking for Lucy Buick, Harmony, Black Angels, and Night Flying, which won the Delacorte Press Prize for First Young Adult Novel. Night Flying was selected as a Best Book by the American Library Association and Smithsonian Magazine and is currently being adapted into a feature film. She lives with her family in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia.