Millie Fierce (review)

Millie's initially a milquetoast, but after being overlooked once too often she snaps: "Millie frizzed out her hair and made the crazy eye. . . . 'Look at me and my ferocity!' she yelled." As Millie Fierce, she commands attention ("Now people looked Millie Fierce right in the eye. They were mad") and leaves a swath of destruction wherever she goes, which is just what she wants. Or is it? Millie's trajectory is comically described with excellent, appalling detail (she "grabbed the biggest, best piece of cake, the one with TWO roses on it"). While it's not a huge surprise that she eventually forswears her fierce ways, this is about the journey more than the moral, and many kids who've considered—or indulged in—acting up to make themselves more visible will sympathize with Millie's antics. The watercolor illustrations feature weirdly comic figures, with broad heads and spindly legs, whose exaggeration is most marked when Millie's on her rampage; softly dappled textures and gently nuanced washes in the backgrounds help to pad the sharp edges of Millie's ferocity. Most kids have felt like both versions of Millie at one time or another, and they'll be relieved to see that the two can coexist.