I'M A GNOME!

A journey to a gnome festival introduces readers to fantastic folk.

The first-person text addresses readers directly as the narrating gnome sets off through the forest. “Oh, don’t shuffle your feet. We don’t have time for that sort of flumadiddle!” their red-capped guide exclaims, but he must pause to explain to the (apparently dawdling) readers that the groups of elves, dwarves, trolls, and fairies they see are not gnomes. The clear lines he tries to make between himself and the other magical beings (elves wear striped leggings; dwarves use pickaxes; trolls have “wild hair”; and fairies fly about) dissolve due to exceptions he makes based on his own gnomish experiences. This dissolution of intergroup differences is reinforced at the festival, where: Gnomes clad in striped bathing suits dip their feet in a pool; another gnome wields a pickax to carve a chocolate statue; several gnomes get wild-looking haircuts (depicted as multicolored, straight strands sticking out from their heads, as opposed to the trolls’ curly “wild hair”); and gnomes fly about astride ducks. Despite this apparent common ground, the groups do stay quite separate from one another throughout the book, though intragroup diversity in appearance (with varied skin and hair colors, some natural to humans, some not) prevents utter homogeneity. There’s humor in art and text, but the story lacks substance, and the digital art borders on the garish.

Gnothing to write gnome about.