Three Nasty Gnarlies
Kindergarten-Grade 3-Deliriously happy and pungent, dump denizens Grubby Gurgle (soprano), Stanky Stoo (bass), and Ooga-Mooga (foot stomping/yodeling) revel in their mucky existence until Snooty Judy Butterfly tells them that they "exude a rank bouquet." Devastated, the three friends attempt to mimic Judy's metamorphosis from muddy peasant bug to lovely butterfly. They wrap themselves up in junk cocoons only to emerge sorrowfully in early May as their old unrefined selves. But good self-esteem rescues their happiness and they celebrate the fact that they're just plain gnarly and they love it that way. Loudly cartoonish and weirdly distorted, Graves's acrylic paintings on illustration board are eye-poppers. Illustrations, concept, and rhyming text (often in word bubbles) mesh to form a unified stinky nest of fun. Music by Funguso Smellagrossi for the aria "We're the Nasty Gnarlies" is reproduced on faux slimed pages at the story's end. The song gives the Gnarlies a chance to compare themselves rightfully to "garbage cans in bloom." As the jacket notes say, "Beauty is in the eye of the beholder."-Liza Graybill, Worcester Public Library, MACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.