PRANCING, DANCING LILY
by Marsha Diane Arnold & illustrated by John Manders
A new addition to the recent stampede of dancing livestock, twinkle-hooved Lily leaves her slower-mooooving fieldmates to travel the world in search of a Place. Sending back rhymed progress reports, she breaks up a square dance by turning the wrong way, flubs an appearance with the Radio City Rockettes, tries out stilt dancing, flamenco, and belly dancing in various countries, then at last finds her true métier in a conga line in the Caribbean. Using a multi-step technique to preserve the spontaneity of his initial sketches, Manders offers accompanying scenes of cow-caused chaos featuring skinny-limbed, loose-jointed figures with oversized expressions of comic dismay. In the end, Lily returns to the farm, and in no time is leading a bovine conga line into the barn. High-stepping fare for fans of Karma Wilson’s Hilda Must Be Dancing (p. 13), Robert Kinerk’s Clorinda (2003), and the rest. (Picture book. 7-9)