Billy Tartle in Say Cheese!

Townsend’s children’s debut shows a mischievous sense of humor but an unpolished storytelling style. With school picture day approaching, Billy Tartle needs a haircut. “All my school pictures are soooo boring,” Billy complains, as he watches his favorite cartoon, “Supermonkey.” Inspired by Supermonkey’s coiffure, Billy draws a stick figure with a spiky Mohawk and tells Barber Ken how to style his black hair (“It should have five points.... oh, and it must be pink”). Unfortunately, Billy’s mother puts the kibosh on his plan, and Billy is disappointed in the adult-pleasing results. He gets even by grabbing all of the “gooey, juicy, sticky fun pops” in Barber Ken’s jar, giving a lollipop to each of his classmates on picture day. Readers learn why in the end: the colorful candies coat kids’ teeth with bright dye. “It was Billy Tartle’s best picture day ever!” Townsend conveys Billy’s stubborn and sly personality, but his pen-and-ink comics suggest notebook doodles, improved with sharp rectangular layouts and intense digitized color. Billy has a wavering, wide smile and a toddler’s clumsy gestures, and the picture-day plot doesn’t quite sustain the book. Still, readers with a rascally bent will likely get a kick out of Billy’s overactive imagination and puckish behavior. Ages 5-8. (July)