Queen of Easter (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Queen of Easter
The subject matter of this newest addition to the Mary Engelbreit product empire is uniquely appropriate to all things associated with the brand. Here, the Queen of Cute's alter ego Ann Estelle is hankering to be the queen of her neighborhood Easter parade with a ribbon-bedecked dream of a hat as her crown. When her mother shows her the plain-Jane "classic" she has bought for her, Ann Estelle is deflated, and she carelessly leaves her new hat on the front porch. As she gets out her scissors and glue to perform a makeover of last year's hat, this year's is taken over by a nesting robin, turning the plain hat into something special indeed. There are no surprises here, but the clichéd and predictable plotline is punched up by the perky, stylized detailing one expects from Engelbreit. From the gentle cheeriness of her plump midwestern-looking folk to the stylized borders with intense colors (resulting sometimes in overbusy and jarring compositions), she is definitely the reigning monarch of those adult readers with a penchant for celebrating a nostalgic perfection that never was, and those children who like their visual worlds bright and chirpy-sweet.
