Narrated by the self-numbered Natalie 24, an overactive five-year-old with a lot of big ideas, this Junie B. Jones knockoff packs a lot of action into a just a few pages. Left to her own devices Natalie makes “Omel-Nats” (omelets) for her family. Her parents do not hear her as she break eggs, opens grape jelly, drops a bag of flour and explodes the microwave in making her one-of-a-kind treat. When her parents eventually do wake up, they don’t flip out; they simple say, “Only Natalie”—words that Natalie learns to hate. Natalie goes on about her day and gets into other scrapes—drawing with purple crayons on the bathroom wall, decorating her father’s church shoes, bringing ants into the house. Her parents end her day with a talk with her about God’s love and His acceptance. Natalie’s language is very, very close to Junie B., complete with the mangling of the names of common objects (“spit-u-la thing”) and the use of the word “that” (“I love that purple stuff”). Good thing God forgives her—many parents would be investigating that “spare the rod” verse. (Fiction. 5-8)
