THE KNIGHT OF LITTLE IMPORT

A young knight finds worthy work with help from sympathetic neighbors—and a fertile imagination.

So quiet is the tiny town of Little Import that all wannabe knight Charlie knows about monsters is what she’s read in her Big Book of Beastly Brutes. But that turns out to be enough to recognize the “Triple-Tier Hungerbeak,” disguised as a cake in the nibbled-over bakery; the “Frenzied Mudbull,” which only looks like a wheelbarrow in a harried neighbor’s plundered garden; the ticking “Furious Thundergong,” whose hourly chime is keeping the potion shop’s exhausted owner awake; and several more boojums. In collages made from embroidery floss, cut paper, sawdust painted green, and like materials, the author depicts common items transforming in stages into fearsome beasts before being “captured” by a small, anonymous figure in full armor and marched off…not to be slain, but settled in a monster sanctuary that becomes a popular attraction and gives Little Import bragging rights over neighboring Biggerborough. Along with racially diverse human figures, Batsel also tucks a marauding mouse in the bakery, a rabbit in the garden, and other rewards for sharp-eyed observers to pick out of her detail-rich scenes. Charlie keeps her closed helmet on even when otherwise dressed in a onesie and so remains racially indeterminate. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Tongue-in-cheek and not at all of little import.