Pinkalicious (review)

Our young narrator is so smitten with pink that she can't resist snarfing down Mom's extra-pink "PINKALICIOUS" cupcakes. When she wakes up the next morning, she's delighted to find that she's pink all over ("I cried because I was so beautiful"), and she resists the doctor's advice to lay off the pink food and chow down the green; unfortunately, she's overdone the pink intake so much that she winds up a displeasing red, which is enough to set her back on the dietary road to person-colored—even if her brother does sneak the last cupcake and go pink himself. The story's signals are a bit confused—nothing is ever made of the birds' and bees' tendency to chase after our little pink flower, and without that drawback, there's no reason for the Pinkster to abandon her lovely shade all together rather than just judiciously balancing her pink intake; as with Double Pink by Kate Feiffer (BCCB 12/05), the plot seems mostly to serve grownups trying to discourage youngsters' aesthetic monomanias rather than to find any genuine reason for limitation. Pink-loving youngsters probably won't mind, though—they'll empathize with the protagonist's cerise satisfaction even as they're certain she caved too easily, and they'll enjoy the winningly direct narration ("Daddy thought I had played with markers, so he gave me a bath"). Computer-generated art opts to balance out the pink with contrast for emphasis (the pink cupcakes are themselves an all-too-believable nightmare of food-coloring excess), and textures vary from soft washes to subtle patterns to photorealistic elements. Though sometimes the result scatters the graphic energy rather than focusing it for narrative purposes, there's enough pink tastiness to keep fuchsia fans happy. Serve this up with a tray of pink cupcakes and, if you're really daring, some pink face paint.