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THE FANCIEST FLOWER

Name: THE FANCIEST FLOWER
Author: Summer Benton
ISBN: 9780063373570

by Summer Benton ; illustrated by Summer Benton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 3, 2026

A frivolous, fun account of a fashionable fad’s undoing.

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The comical rise and fall of a commercial craze.

Ferny O’Violet raises and sells “the most flowery flowers.” Confronting an imperious and influential buyer who rejects all conventional posies, Ferny borrows the central trick in “The Emperor’s New Clothes,” touting an ordinary fork as the “fanciest flower in the whole entire world.” It’s unaccompanied even by minimal greenery, nor wrapped in florist’s paper, but it’s immediately a hit. A consumer mania ensues. While selling out all her forks (and additional cutlery), Ferny neglects her living plants, which die. When one little boy begs for a final flower, Ferny finds a sole survivor and sells it to him. Unprompted, she admits her scam to her shocked clients, including a talking, bloom-loving beagle. They all miss real flowers, so she quickly restores her original business, now removing forks from her life entirely. A final frame features a forkless fail: Ferny attempts to twine spaghetti, with sauce, on a flower stem. Benton’s illustrations are as absurd as the story, with forks galore poking from pots and even serving as the centerpiece at an elegant dinner party. Ferny and friends stare with extra-large, round, cartoony eyes, their rubbery bodies frolicking in neon-bright spaces. Benton has crafted an effective parable about how marketing hype can create its own dead end, dressed in delightful nonsense to appeal to lovers of the ridiculous. Ferny’s pale-skinned and red-haired; the supporting cast is diverse.

A frivolous, fun account of a fashionable fad’s undoing. (Picture book. 4-8)

Pub Date: March 3, 2026

ISBN: 9780063373570

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: Jan. 19, 2026

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Feb. 15, 2026

Categories:

CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
ZILBO'S FOREST
by Summer Benton ; illustrated by Summer Benton

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ON THE FIRST DAY OF KINDERGARTEN

by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Laura Hughes ‧ RELEASE DATE: June 21, 2016

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of...

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Rabe follows a young girl through her first 12 days of kindergarten in this book based on the familiar Christmas carol.

The typical firsts of school are here: riding the bus, making friends, sliding on the playground slide, counting, sorting shapes, laughing at lunch, painting, singing, reading, running, jumping rope, and going on a field trip. While the days are given ordinal numbers, the song skips the cardinal numbers in the verses, and the rhythm is sometimes off: “On the second day of kindergarten / I thought it was so cool / making lots of friends / and riding the bus to my school!” The narrator is a white brunette who wears either a tunic or a dress each day, making her pretty easy to differentiate from her classmates, a nice mix in terms of race; two students even sport glasses. The children in the ink, paint, and collage digital spreads show a variety of emotions, but most are happy to be at school, and the surroundings will be familiar to those who have made an orientation visit to their own schools.

While this is a fairly bland treatment compared to Deborah Lee Rose and Carey Armstrong-Ellis’ The Twelve Days of Kindergarten (2003), it basically gets the job done. (Picture book. 4-7)

Pub Date: June 21, 2016

ISBN: 978-0-06-234834-0

Page Count: 32

Publisher: Harper/HarperCollins

Review Posted Online: May 3, 2016

Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2016

Categories:

CHILDREN'S CONCEPTS | CHILDREN'S SOCIAL THEMES

- BOOK REVIEW
A PERFECT PLACE TO PLAY
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Jim Valeri

- BOOK REVIEW
ON THE FIRST DAY OF FIRST GRADE
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Sarah Jennings

- BOOK REVIEW
FIVE LITTLE BUNNIES
by Tish Rabe ; illustrated by Dan Yaccarino

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IT'S NOT EASY BEING A GHOST

From the It's Not Easy Being series

by Marilyn Sadler ; illustrated by Stephanie Laberis ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 13, 2024

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet.

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A ghost longs to be scary, but none of the creepy personas she tries on fit.

Misty, a feline ghost with big green eyes and long whiskers, wants to be the frightening presence that her haunted house calls for, but sadly, she’s “too cute to be spooky.” She dons toilet paper to resemble a mummy, attempts to fly on a broom like a witch, and howls at the moon like a werewolf. Nothing works. She heads to a Halloween party dressed reluctantly as herself. When she arrives, her friends’ joyful screams reassure her that she’s great just as she is. Sadler’s message, though a familiar one, is delivered effectively in a charming, ghostly package. Misty truly is too precious to be frightening. Laberis depicts an endearingly spooky, all-animal cast—a frog witch, for instance, and a crocodilian mummy. Misty’s sidekick, a cheery little bat who lends support throughout, might be even more adorable than she is. Though Misty’s haunted house is filled with cobwebs and surrounded by jagged, leafless trees, the charming characters keep things from ever getting too frightening. The images will encourage lingering looks. Clearly, there’s plenty that makes Misty special just as she is—a takeaway that adults sharing the book with their little ones should be sure to drive home.

Too cute to be spooky indeed but most certainly sweet. (Picture book. 4-6)