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YOU ARE OH SO HORRIBLY HANDSOME! by Eva Dax

YOU ARE OH SO HORRIBLY HANDSOME!

by Eva Dax ; illustrated by Sabine Dully translated by David Henry Wilson

Pub Date: Sept. 1st, 2016
ISBN: 978-1-76036-029-0
Publisher: Starfish Bay

Is beauty in the eye of the beholder?

Gregor, a little green monster who loves to run and shout and show off his horrendous strength by lifting heavy things, is bothered by a nagging, “nasty thought.” He looks in a mirror one day, seeing his big nose and “sticking-out ears,” and asks himself, “Am I handsome?” Mommy seems the perfect person to answer the question. “Of course,” she says. “I don’t know anyone who can squint as handsomely as you.” Daddy agrees, adding, “You’ve got the stinkiest, cheesiest feet in the whole world!” Daddy gleefully tosses him in the air, downing a small plane and a handful of birds. Granddad admires Gregor’s “rotten crooked” teeth; his neighbor loves his “mucky, yucky” warts; his little brother likes his “wibbly-wobbly” tummy; and Gregor’s best friend praises his gray, greasy, scaly, scabby skin. (Her magnifying glass reveals all sorts of wacky dermal life.) Gregor looks in the mirror again and remembers all of the things that his family and friends have told him. At length, he realizes: “It was true. He really was handsome!” Dully’s bright, digital illustrations are deliriously goofy, each a story in itself. They give Dax’s straightforward silliness, teeming with juicy adjectives, a nice lift. The story itself doesn’t plumb the depths, concentrating on skin-deep humor.

Delightful if a tad one-dimensional.

(Picture book. 3-5)