Chris Kersh: Rafi and the Not-Me Newt, Gebunden

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Daniel's elbow knocks the orange paint jar. It floods Emma's volcano, two whole weeks of careful work, gone in a second. And before Daniel even thinks, his mouth says the words: "It wasn't me! It was Rosco!" Rosco is the family dog. He's asleep. He didn't do a thing. But the blame wakes up a beast. It's the Not-Me Newt, a round, sweet-eyed, paint-pawed little creature only Daniel can see. Every time Daniel blames somebody, the Newt flings a flat orange fault-splat with a tiny handprint on it, and anything a splat lands on cannot be fixed while everybody argues whose fault it is. The mess just stays a mess. Soon there are splats all over the house and the classroom, and Daniel's own hands won't even wash clean.

Then help climbs dripping wet out of the class newt tank. Rafi is an Agent Angel who is wild about animals (did you know a goldfish can hear?) and totally baffled by the paper-towel dispenser, which he is sure is a polite wall handing him blankets. Rafi can hold the Newt back. He just can't say Daniel's words for him. There's only one thing that peels a splat off, and it's the hardest thing a kid can do: looking the person you hurt right in the eye and saying it was me, I'm sorry, out loud, and meaning it. But the Maker Fair is Friday, the whole town will be there, and Emma is still waiting to hear five brave words.

At its heart is one simple, freeing idea: "it was me" is what fixes the mess, while "not me" only makes more of it, so saying sorry isn't the hard part you have to get through, it's the part that sets everything right. Daniel learns that brave and scared can ride together, that his knees can shake and his hands can go cold and he can say it anyway. He learns that hedging doesn't count, that "it kind of broke" is just a hide both the Newt and Emma can see through, and that Dad's quiet house rule is the gentlest grown-up wisdom: yelling never fixed a single thing, but "I did it, let's fix it" fixes everything.

Faith here is simple and warm, the way a nervous kid needs it. The night before the fair, Daniel says a small, scared prayer in the dark to the King, and He hears every word, even the scared part. The Christian values are lived out in the story, never delivered as a lecture.

Good to know before you buy: it's written for ages 6 to 9, read aloud from 6 and self-read by most kids at 7 or 8, with short chapters and black-and-white illustrations throughout. The beast is funny, never scary, a sweet little fibber that whistles when it feels guilty and keeps blaming the floor. This is a complete story with a real ending (Book 5 of the Agent Angels series, and it reads great on its own).

Hand this one to any kid who has ever pointed at someone else and said "not me." Perfect for the kid learning to fess up, say sorry, and make it right. Fair warning: you may catch yourself owning up to the chipped mug before anybody even asks.