A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of 2025!A Horn Book Fanfare Best Picture Book of 2025!A Wall Street Journal Best Children's Book of 2025! "The small collection of short stories in Sato the Rabbit, Morning Light features pictures so gorgeous and prismatic that a child might be tempted to bite into them. The eponymous character is a boy who wears a rabbit costume and has a quirky way of seeing the world; the main thing about the book is the inventive beauty of Sato's vision. He imagines-and 4- to 7-year-olds see him do it-plucking a length of sunshine off the wall and using what appear to be jellied cubes of colored light to make the beams of his own lighthouse."
Wall Street Journal

STARRED REVIEW! ? "Is Sato a boy in a rabbit costume or a rabbit with a human face and bearing? Is he a kid or a grownup? What matters is that he's an alert, curious, questing creature who follows his imagination and his heart... In simple declarative sentences and compositions made of ovals and blobs in warm pastel colors, Ainoya creates a world of kindness and abundance as the background to a story that needs no conflict to be fully realized, absorbing, and sweetly funny."
The Horn Book

STARRED REVIEW! ? "This painterly picture book follows a rabbit on a reality-bending adventure that makes magic of the everyday... Soft lines and rich colors form soothing illustrations that track Sato collecting dappled sunshine from the forest floor and making a drink of stars before using the last of his light to ignite dewdrops and build a bed of glowing mushrooms."
Foreword Reviews

The Sato books encourage parents to meet their children where they are-in a space of focussed exploration-rather than relentlessly pulling kids toward adulthood through narratives that educate or pontificate. In fact, reading them in the bright quiet of morning, with an attentive child, feels like childhood itself.
The New Yorker