PRUNELLA, written by Beth Ferry and illustrated by Claire Keane, is the story of a girl born with a purple thumb. Her parents, with their green thumbs, are puzzled, but all soon becomes clear. Prunella loves cactuses and Venus flytraps, bat flowers and fungi. Her parents “[don’t] always understand Prunella’s choices,” but they wholeheartedly fuel her passion. Unfortunately, the neighborhood kids are “not only nervous but nauseated” at Prunella’s pinching, poking, reeking garden. So Prunella, growing ever more prickly herself, befriends bugs, bees, and her teddy bear cholla, rather than humans. But—eventually—a small Venus Flytrap-loving boy plants a “tiny, hopeful friend-shaped seed” in her heart. This is a quirky, hopeful story about finding your own “peculiar,” if need be, tribe. Offbeat, energetic, digital illustrations are a nice match to the story. (Make’s a nice companion/counterpoint to Millie Fleur’s Poison Garden, by Christy Mandin!)
WOLFGANG IN THE MEADOW, by Lenny Wen, is worthy of a read or three, even though it features yet another adorable ghost who wants to do more than be spooky. Wolfgang lives in the meadow and, like the other supernatural beings who live there, he practices plenty of spooky-haunty things. But he also enjoys hugging trees, picking wildflowers, and gazing at clouds and stars with his (bunny and bird) meadow friends. Wolfgang works hard to achieve his dream of becoming the “mightiest spookish” being who gets to haunt the Dark Castle, but along the way he loses track of his non-spooky side. Now, even thought Wolfgang is living his dream, he finds himself growing weaker and weaker, until one of his bird friends from the meadow is able to remind him of the power of what he’s lost. It’s a terrific story about learning to embrace all of what makes you special, with beautiful illustrations that incorporate graphite, closed pencils, gouache, and acrylic gouache into the final digital images.
In SMALL THINGS MENDED, written by Casey Robinson and illustrated by Nancy Whitesides, Cecil lives a quiet life on his own until neighbor Lily needs her watch fixed. After Cecil mends it, and is rewarded by Lily’s “biggest smile,” Lily’s friend Alfred shows up with a broken music box (“without the music, it’s just a box”). Cecil mends that, too, and when he sees how delighted Alfred is, Cecil hangs a sign announcing he will open a shop to fix neighborhood “trinkets and treasures, doodads and thingamajigs.” He works long and hard, but when Eleanor brings her stuffed elephant Daisy, who has a broken heart, Cecil isn’t at all sure he can help. He tries and tries, until the welcome presence of Daisy at his table gives him an idea. As Cecil opens his heart—and his table—to neighbors and friends, more than one heart is mended that day. Such a delightful story, with the perfect soft, expressive gouache, crayon, pencil and digital media illustrations to bring it to life!
NOODLES ON A BICYCLE, written by Kyo Maclear and illustrated by Gracey Zhang, beings “when the deliverymen set off in the morning,” observed by a group of children. The deliverymen leave on bicycles, with stacks of noodles in “famous house broth,” trays and trays of soup bowls and wooden boxes, balancing one on top of another, “towers on their shoulders.” Beep, beep, honk, honk, deliverymen zip all over the city as hungry customers wait. They are “acrobats, whizzing past other bicycles, soaring around curves, cresting hills, avoiding potholes and the black smoke of motorcycles.” And when night falls and the children are hungry, who delivers their own meal? Papa, of course, bone-tired but always ready to tuck in his kids with a kiss. The vivid, lyrical text is full of energy, as are the ink and gouache illustrations, with their loose style and perfect palette of golds and greens, pinks and purples.
STILL LIFE, written by Alex London and illustrated by Paul O. Zelinsky, is a fun, tongue-in-cheek romp wherein an artist describes what a still life is in no uncertain terms: “This is a still life. It is a painting of objects sitting still. In a still life, nothing moves.” But, as the artist gets specific about exactly which elements in this still life don’t move—they do. “Eager mice” peek out from behind a cloth, a dragon and a knight appear, and, when chaos erupts, a queen saves the day. It’s playful fun—who wouldn’t appreciate a painting disobeying an artist’s overly-strict rules?—and it all ends with a silly sneeze. The voice is perfectly pedantic and the black pencil and digital art does a nice job of keeping the actual painting separate from the living that’s subverting the narration.
In THE YOWLERS, written by Stacey Lynn Carroll and illustrated by Molly Ruttan, grumpiness is “a way of life.” The monster family shrieks and brawls, shouts and wails, and the baby’s yowling is heard day and night, “in every corner of the neighborhood.” But when a new family, the Nicelys, shows up “doing something weird with their teeth” (erm, they’re smiling), the Yowlers don’t know what to make of it. The Nicely boys teach the Yowler girls how to play soccer—and it’s fun! So is dealing with stuff “without any tantrums.” The astounded Yowler parents are worried, but there are cookies, baked by the Nicelys, and before long even baby Yowler learns how to laugh. The text is lighthearted and relatable, and kids should enjoy figuring out the secret behind the Yowlers’ monstrousness, while the playful art, done in charcoal, pastel, acrylic, and digital media, cleverly illustrates the transition from nasty to nice!
--Lynn
