Review: Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice? No Way!!!
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 01 25, 2013
Common wisedom dictates that little boys are made of snips and snails, and puppy dogs tails, and little girls are made of sugar and spice. Yet the little heroine of this book breaks this mold, even though she cleverly pretends to fit it whenever it can help her get out of trouble: "Who me?" she flutters her eyelashes like a butterfly, when her mischief is caught by her mother.Not only does little Falisha break the mold, but so does her mother! When she suspects that Jesse has been flushed--again--down the toilet, she never loses her cool. Unlike any mother I know she barely shows any panic, and on the other hand she decidedly refrains from springing into action to save the poor victim. Instead, she says with a huff and a puff, "You get Jesse back safe from that toilet or I'm going to have to tell your daddy!" Smartly, she places the entire responsibility square on the shoulders of the culprit, Falisha, giving her the charge to bring Jesse back from the underworld. What a strange mission, never entrusted to girls in traditional children's literature, and what a yukky, yet sweeping journey it turns out to be! Armed with her raincoat, boots, a plunger, and extra toilet paper, Falisha is ready to embark on a wide-ranging exploration through the yukk kingdom, making her way amongst the fantastically-disgusting creatures slugging in its muck.The dialog is delightful, and it is as animated in words as the art on the pages of this book, done by Danko Hererra. For every sentence uttered in the story, the pose of the character is vividly depicted, you can imagine her right here before your eyes: "She pointed her finger in my face and wagged it back and forth." Through the use of endearing humor and plain exaggeration, the amazingly talented author Jeff Rivera brings the essence of the characters--Falisha, her mother and Jesse, her little brother--to life.Five stars.