There's wondrous art in the service of little brothers in this follow-up to A Few Blocks (2011).
Viola has made lunch for her little brother Ferdie: broccoli, carrot sticks, ravioli. Ferdie is consumed with the desire to find a missing toy part, but Viola promises to help him find it after he eats. Ferdie does not want this lunch. But then Viola launches into a brilliant saga of dinosaurs who could climb mountains and scale volcanoes so long as they ate 5,000 broccolis a day. This plays out in full color around the delicate little black-and-white sketches of brother and sister, fabulous paper sculptures of the children, dinosaurs, mountains and forests overlaying the original domestic scene. Ferdie eats three bites. Then he balks at the carrot sticks. Viola begins again, with aliens and their Orange Power Sticks, and after the second explosion of color, line and story, he eats them all up. But the ravioli is cold now, and although Viola launches a wild and splendid story—fish this time—she falters at the end. The images return to black and white, and Viola plugs in her earphones. She’s done. But Ferdie has an idea, in color, and it works out very well indeed.
A good story and thoroughly engaging art that flows organically from it; two attractive siblings in a recognizable setting; a winner. (Picture book. 4-8)
