A VERY GOOD PARADE

A little girl gets neighborhood kids to join her impromptu parade.

“It’s time for a parade!” announces young Gabby, who’s brown-skinned, dark hair in a commandingly tall topknot, clad in an ensemble suitable for a grand marshal: crown, cape, and tutu. Holding a spatula aloft, Gabby marches from her city apartment to the street and yells, “Come join the parade!” A brown-skinned boy named Miguel has a tuba at hand that he doesn’t know how to play, but Gabby could give two toots: “That horn is so good you don’t even have to play it.” Miguel grabs his tuba and follows Gabby, as do a multiracial assortment of kids who have all it takes—gumption—to join the parade. After the kids arrive at a park, Gabby shouts, “Now we will all perform!” and the musical interlude (Gabby conducts with her spatula) draws applause from bystanders. The event concludes with Gabby’s proclamation: “Now it is time for dinner!” Gabby is hilariously bossy, and there’s a wonderfully off-kilter specificity to the text (some kids initially don’t want to be in the parade because “we’ll miss snack time”), much of it relayed in dialogue balloons (Gabby to the snack devotees: “Eat this string cheese. Now, what will you be in the parade?”). The digital art has a cut-paper-and-crayons look that’s just right for this galvanizing story’s DIY and kid-power spirit.

A very good parade—and a truly fantastic book.