TOO PICKLEY!

Rejoice, gleeful mealtime fussbudgets: Too Purpley! (2010) has a sibling, and it’s called Too Pickley! This round-headed boy rejects all offered foods. A rodent companion follows him through Reidy’s pithy, energetic text, which scans and rhymes so exuberantly that it feels joyful even though it’s about revulsion. “Too wrinkly, too squishy, / too fruity, / too fishy! / Too slimy, too slurpy, / too bubbly, / too burpy!” Readers must project their own knowledge of varying textures, because Leloup’s brightly colored, flattish digital shapes don’t really convey the wrinkleyness of raisins or the sliminess of snails. But the portrayals of this boy mummified in spaghetti (“too stringy”), holding a square forkful of still-frozen peas (“too freezy”) and squinting underneath the dripping raincloud formed by the “too fizzy” seltzer explosion carry the conceptual humor. The ending’s gustatory triumph may frustrate—it’s unclear what he finally declares “So yummy!” because he’s “All done” by the time readers see it—but the verse is so satisfying that young listeners will recite along and demand seconds. Tuck in! (Picture book. 2-5)