LAUREN MCGILL’S PICKLE MUSEUM
by Jerdine Nolen & illustrated by Debbie Tilley
“Lauren McGill was absolutely wild about pickles.” She wears pickle-green clothes; decorates her room in pickle shades; she even rearranges the letters of her name to make pickle words. She loves everything: their pungent aroma, crunch, bite, taste, shape, and texture. Sadly her family does not share this love, nor does her class—until the day of their visit to a pickle factory. As the bus cruises down Pickle Factory Lane, vatloads of pickles rain from the sky and pound the bus; an experiment has gone awry. Pickles and brine drench everything and everyone. But Lauren saves the day—with the batches of empty jars she brought—and suddenly everybody else loves pickles too. Now Lauren doesn’t feel special anymore—until she creates the world’s first pickle museum. Tilly’s watercolor illustrations of pickle-perfect shades of green, her use of line creating humorous expressions, and the clever pickle details in the scenes make deliciously silly fun. Kids will relish this dilly of a story without a sour note anywhere. (Picture book. 5-8)