ZIGZAG

Czernecki’s patchwork illustrations make a bright and busy visual impression, but can’t quite carry San Souci’s bland, predictable tale. “I’m just special,” insists Zigzag, the new cloth doll, to which the other dolls in the store jeeringly respond, “You’re just ugly,” and push him off the shelf into the trash. Out he goes in the morning, on a journey that ends, of course, in the arms of an adoring little girl. Depicted as if made from many small patches of gingham and other patterned scraps, and with a stitched zigzag mouth that, natch, curves into a smile at the end, Zigzag is plainly intended to stand in for any child ostracized for physical differences. But the theme has seen so many more spirited treatments, from “The Ugly Duckling” on, that this one is unlikely to make much of an impression. (Picture book. 5-7)