Pink Me Up

Harper (the Fashion Kitty series) delivers a frothy tale that will most appeal to girls with an untiring love of all things pink. Clad ears to toe in that color, a rabbit is excited that the day of the “Pink Girls Pink-nic” has arrived, until Mama wakes up sick (“Why is Mama wearing pink spots? Did you put them on specially for the party?”). When Daddy offers to accompany the girl instead, she'll have none of it, exclaiming “Boys are NOT pink!” A pink necktie isn't quite enough, but after he announces, “We just have to pink me up,” she decorates his clothes with pink marker, tape, and stickers and deems him “perfectly pink.” He's a hit at the party—and she's the envy of all her friends. Rendered in acrylic, Harper's characteristically unadorned, childlike cartoons add to the book's whimsy and rosy exaggeration (exclamation points and the color pink go hand in hand, and both are used with abandon). Even readers who aren't as single-minded when it comes to colors will empathize with the heroine's emotional highs and lows. Ages 5–8. (Feb.)