PEPI SINGS A NEW SONG
by Laura Ljungkvist and illustrated by Laura Ljungkvist
On matte pages with backgrounds of blues, purples, greens and golds, Pepi the white parrot sings his “special space song” to Peter, a star-gazing lad in a backward-facing baseball cap and a Saturn T-shirt. Pepi decides to find other things to sing about and visits Manuel’s bakery, Clive’s music studio, Aurora’s art studio, Malcolm’s market and Cynthia’s dog park in search of new material. Each double-page spread of Pepi’s encounter with a human is followed by a two-page splash of images with word balloons naming the objects. For Clive, it’s “maracas...accordion...violin...amplifier”; for Malcolm, it’s “cantaloupes...kale...apples...juicy.” Finally, Pepi brings home a new song that begins, “Twinkle, twinkle, little flute, / Poodle, xylophone, cobalt, fruit,” and goes on in a cheery mishmash of the new words. The digital art utilizes expanses of flat color and shaped, controlled line in elegant ways and with a distinctly Modern aesthetic. One can quibble about rhyming “telescope” with “Asterope” (properly pronounced As-TER-o-pee), but, overall, a pleasing outing. (Picture book. 4-8)