ONE

From the ten armadillos born in 10 (Ten): A Wonderful Story (2002), one raises his snout to proclaim himself Number One, in what Radunsky bills “a nice story about an awful braggart.” Not content with being just one of the litter, #6 loudly announces that he’s the tallest, smartest, fastest, bravest, and strongest, that his dog is the biggest, that he has more friends than anybody—including the Stinky Cheese Man, who puts in a cameo—and deserves a raft of fabulous birthday presents, including black stick-on fingernails and a superman outfit. Surrounded by lines of large display type, this pink-skinned, blue-nosed (all armadillos paint their noses blue, the author observes: no one knows why) self-aggrandizer bounds across wide-open page spaces to stand at last atop a huge number one as relatives and sibs agree that he is a “#1 clown, show-off, chatterbox, storyteller, dreamer!” How’s that for a brisk but loving response, effectively putting the boaster in his place without denigrating him? Kudos to Radunsky, for another verbal and visual blast laced with silliness and affection. (Picture book. 6-8)