Lala the rugabee lives underground and excels at digging krinkles, but what she really wants is to be a princess, like the three girls in the castle. Up she climbs from her hole to the princesses’ room, where she tries on their dresses and, of course, is discovered. The princesses invite her to a ball, but, alas, rugabees are not graceful, and she trips, to the ridicule of all. Can Lala redeem herself? Pendragon author MacHale pens a predictable, rambling tale, full of ups and downs (literal as well as metaphorical), in self-conscious verse and with little internal logic or tension. Boiger’s watercolors do their best with the flimsy material, maximizing Lala’s psychic remove with skewed, rabbit-hole perspectives. The monster is green and very cute—not at all monstrous—and the borrowed dress very pink. At best, cotton candy. (Picture book. 5-8)
