King Zucchini invites young readers into the lush, playful world of a dog whose cozy life gets turned upside down by the unexpected arrival of a cat. Artist and Portland State University professor Meredith Hamm‘s debut picture book is a warm-hearted exploration of what happens at the edges of our comfort, and what we find when we dare to sit with the discomfort there. Written for ages three to eight, it renders big emotions with warmth and a kind of friendly recognizability.

The book opens with a sense of Zucchini’s joyful routine: snuggles with family, a treat precisely at 2pm, a world in gentle motion, beautifully paced. Then, with the arrival of the orange neighborhood cat, the spell is broken. Hamm gives us Zucchini’s inner world through pictorial metaphor– queasy guts rendered as a spinning merry-go-round, her wavering stomach as a lone boat adrift at sea, her heartbeat a single determined drummer, tongue out in concentration. Each image is given generous space, always landing with a sense of recognizability: yes, that’s exactly what it feels like.

When the discomfort crests into anger and blame, the chaos is captured just as vividly–  overwhelm as swirling discs of bright color, an anxious mind as wind sweeping through all of Zucchini’s beloved toys from her happy earlier life. Hamm has a gift for moving fluidly between the atmospheric and the tactile, always in service of the body’s experience of feeling.

Then one of Zucchini’s people sits down. No fuss. Just presence.

What follows is one of the book’s most extraordinary gestures: three pages, wordless save for a faint, friendly “Listen,” in which we see Zucchini’s inner sea, dark, stormy, swirling with grey and brown, slowly settling. Lightning fades. The waters calm. Plant life reaches toward the light, and Zucchini, safe on her inner raft, watches a blossoming sunset. The silence is not empty; it’s an invitation for the reader to listen into their own inner world, and feel the shift alongside her.

Returned to herself, Zucchini discovers something remarkable: curiosity. The cat, once threatening, becomes fascinating. Her senses come alive. The world beyond the window opens into adventure. 

King Zucchini teaches, with grace and without a word of instruction, that our feelings, when felt fully, naturally settle and give way to the wonders of friendship and adventure. 

Hamm is also working on a series of art activities to go alongside the book which invite the kids to explore and give expression to their own inner worlds. The kit for art project #1 includes pre-cut collage materials, a glue stick, and a sheet of instructions, outlining the learning goals and lesson plan.

Pick up a copy via the publisher: Piglet Papers

Title: King Zucchini

Author: Meredith Hamm 

Illustrator: Meredith Hamm 

Publisher: Piglet Papers