TOO PERFECT

This well-intentioned but highly didactic picture book focuses on the pitfalls of apparent perfection. Maisie believes that a girl in her class is perfect in looks, actions and life. However, through some classroom interactions, she quickly sees that all is not wonderful in Kayla’s world. The pressure to be perfect and the subsequent loss of Maisie’s self-confidence are assuaged by her sensible mother. Fields’s Photoshopped oil illustrations are more than a bit weird, with Maisie an alarming shade of pinky peach and Kayla seemingly Asian American, in an unfortunate instance of stereotyping. Somewhat interesting uses of perspective in the illustrations echo the different points of view of the characters within. An afterword by a psychologist, an author’s note giving tips for dealing with this problem, questions for discussion as well as a short bibliography weigh this Lesson down even further. While lacking in literary or pictorial merit, however, the book is one of few on a very timely social problem. (Picture book. 7-10)