Little Lulu Volume 10: All Dressed Up
Even Homer nods, and so, too, does Lulu, or at least her creators. Some undercooked stories sully the end of this book. Most lamentable is "The Football Star," in which Tubby gulls Lulu into filling out a five-man team otherwise consisting of his four-boy club to play the ever-tough West Side Gang. She nearly saves the day for her side, but how she does it is weird and--fatal in the essentially transparent world ofLittleLulu--never explained. Still, the peremptory ending of the Lulu-less last story in the book (what's the deal--did Stanley run out of imagination or just pages?) almost makes up for "The Football Star," and what precedes it is fine to superb. "Five Little Babies," the opener, takes the theme of gender revenge for a particularly good run, and its immediate follower, "Business Girl," does the same with gender rivalry when Lulu and Annie play dueling lemonade stands with Tubby and club. Lulu's tales told to pesky Alvin are up to snuff, too.Ray OlsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved