Lucy and the String by Vanessa Roeder (review)
Buy Issue for $25 at JHUP- Lucy and the String by Vanessa Roeder
Trade ed. ISBN 978-0-7352-3049-1 $17.99
E-book ed. ISBN 978-0-525-55251-2 $10.99
Reviewed from galleys R 4-7 yrs
When Lucy finds an end of a string on the ground, she does what any reasonable person would: she pulls it. And pulls it. And pulls it until, to her delight, she has a lovely snarl of tangled-up red string. Unfortunately, that snarl comes along with a vocalized “Snarl” belonging to a put-out bear, whose bottom half had been covered with pants made from the now-unraveled string. It appears there’s no real way to restore the bear’s bottoms, so Lucy tries to turn the yarn into a wig, a hat, cowboy chaps, and a tutu to cheer bear up, but really, he just wants some pants. Fortunately, her knitting skills solve the problem but not quite in the expected way. The story is slight but humorous, and the grumpy, half-covered, half-bare bear makes an amusing comedic foil to pigtailed, gap-toothed Lucy in her snazzy black and white dress. The two-color palette (shades of black and a zingy red) and effective paneling balance the scribbly string with the more fully defined, expressive ursine and child figures. Pair this with Watkins’ Pete with No Pants (BCCB 5/17) for some serious giggles, but make sure everyone knows no pants, no storytime. [End Page 483]
