KIRKUS REVIEW
What better way to make friends than throwing a party?
Nellie Sue has a new pair of pink dancing boots, but she can't go out dancing alone. Mama suggests befriending the new girls that she sees playing on the street. Nellie Sue saddles up her pink "two-wheeled horse" and invites the three girls to go for a ride; the youngest (about Nellie Sue's age) seems interested, but her older sister says, "Not in ballet slippers." Nellie Sue is discouraged, but only for a minute; her dog Ginger gives her a great idea! She makes some pretty invitations and gets back on her horse, galloping "like the Pony Express" to ask the neighbor girls to her "Barn Dance." The whole neighborhood shows up, and Nellie Sue commences to dance. But the floor is slick and she takes a tumble, bringing the refreshments and most of the guests down with her. Ginger starts giving everybody on the floor sloppy dog kisses. It looks like Nellie Sue's party will be a disaster until that youngest girl, whose name is Anna, laughs. Finally, the ice is broken. Nellie Sue drops g’s and uses cowgirl idiom with abandon; her adherence to the cowgirl "code of honor" is endearing. Avril's line-and-watercolor cartoons keep the visual tone light.
A passel of fun activities—dancing, crafting, biking and dress up—are tucked into Janni's tonic tale of imagination and optimism. (Picture book. 3-5)
