LOLA DUTCH WHEN I GROW UP

A girl experiments with careers and loves them all.

In prior book Lola Dutch (2018), the narrative voice classified Lola’s exuberant personality as “too much”; this time it’s her career aspirations. Fortunately, after opening with the same chiding tone (“This is Lola. Lola Dutch. Lola Dutch wants to be too much”), the narration drops the judgment, and Lola goes to town, sampling careers to her heart’s content. She’s an opera singer! Inventor! Botanist! Each requires copious assistance—for example, “Gator built the set. Pig composed the orchestrations. Crane designed the costumes”—depicted in vignettes, after which readers see a full-bleed double-page spread of accomplishment: Lola onstage belting opera or Lola perching in an I’m-the-king-of-the-world pose in the nose of her old-fashioned, mildly steampunk flying ship. Other careers fly by more quickly in spot illustrations: astronaut, pastry chef, veterinarian, chemist. Visual references to Vermeer and Leonardo will tickle adults. Ever present is Lola’s steady guardian, Bear, who’s ungendered, wears a yellow bow tie, and seems to lack feet (to no mobility detriment). The pencil, gouache, and watercolor illustrations are airy and cheerful. Lola, a tall, skinny white girl, is supposedly facing a quandary here—what to be when she grows up—but her career explorations and boundless energy are exciting, not stressful.

Breezily enthusiastic.