Ellen's 11 Star Spectacular Super Deluxe Hotel

Ellen, a girl who enjoys stretching the truth, boasts about the fabulous resort where she lives, then humbly qualifies each rave review. In her imagination, she swings on a delicate trapeze at her frosting-pink castle, where "movie stars, musicians, astronauts, and artists stay" on vacation. "Well, actually," she admits, "it's a motel outside Carson City, Nevada," and her trapeze is a tire on a rope. With a flip of the page, a bling-y portrait of jet-setting guests is replaced with a picture of a bowler, a shoeless banjo plucker, an overalls-clad farmer and a beauty contestant whose sash reads "Chicken Queen." Emerald Acres (comparable to TV's Green Acres , minus the pigs and greens) is a low-slung desert building, surrounded by dirt, cacti and a passel of hens. Ellen knows how to look on the bright side, though. She whiles away the lonely hours by "tossing Astro Sludge Jelly and Lard Pies that I got from the vending machine into my tire," and she plays gumshoe when a hysterical guest's luggage gets misplaced. Ellen is a likable tall-tale-spinner; her wide smile and gravity-defying auburn hair imply lightness of heart. She doesn't have any playmates, though, and readers may wonder whether her life is funny or sad. Schwarz and Denato, making their children's book debuts, sling trailer-trash stereotypes without providing much plot or many laughs. Ages 3-6. (June)