Hattie the Bad (review)

Hattie started out as a good little child, but then realized where the fun really lay: badness. She subsequently embarked on a career of delicious and exciting evil that endeared her to all the other kids, but now their parents have forbidden them to play with her as a consequence. Ever the extremist, Hattie throws herself back into virtue, winning the "Best Behaved Child" award, but the ceremony proves too much temptation for her mischievous side, and she happily forsakes pure goodness again. Though the book switches Hattie between bad and good too many times and with no particular gain, Hattie is a charismatic character whether she's good or bad (her satiric Kewpie-doll stare of virtue is particularly amusing), and of course full-blown badness—which often, with Hattie, seems to involve the cunning and surprising placement of frogs—always has a certain glamour. Hattie's climactic blowing of her saintly cover involves shouting the magic word "Underpants!" in a crowded auditorium, a high point that's likely to reduce the book's audiences to the same gleeful giggles as Hattie's. Visually, Hattie inhabits a world of computer-generated swathes of color, figures created through energetic, slender black line; neatly balanced compositions never undercut Hattie's mischief, and their vertical inclination adds to the theatrical flavor of the heroine's star turn. While audiences may wish Hattie would just stick to the evil that makes her so alluring, they'll likely forgive her after her pantsy exclamation; nervy readers-aloud may want to do an instant replay of the moment to allow audiences to join in.