THE SELFISH SISTER

Wit snaps and crackles in humorist Sedaris’ tale of narcissism run amok.

“The selfish sister, pronoun ‘she,’ // only thinks of / me me me!” A green-skinned, one-toothed little tyrant, complete with her own tiny crown, terrorizes one and all with her insufferable greed and many demands. Yet Sedaris’ deft rhymes make listening to her mandates an utter treat. She declares that she deserves to own an endless list of items, including but not limited to “the lesser Black Tailed Gull, / the human race, / this monkey skull, / beebop hits, / a jazz CD, / the flag that means LGBT.” A lesser artist might quail at the sheer variety of objects, concepts, and even seasons that this little despot lays claim to, but Staake is more than up to the challenge. Inventive stylings in pen and ink give this retro-looking tale some visual panache and a particularly contemporary bit of brazen appeal. Unlike with Sedaris’ previous foray into picture books (2024’s Pretty Ugly, illustrated by the late Ian Falconer), here he opts to include a smidgen of a lesson at the end of the tale, off-handedly mentioning that the sister has everything she could want, except for friends. Thankfully, this mic drop of a conclusion avoids any danger of didacticism.

Blessedly bad behavior gets its day in the sun, and we are HERE for it!