Penny Loves Pink

In illustrator Doerrfeld's (Welcome to Your World, Baby!) authorial debut, Penny is supremely confident in her predilection for a certain hue: "I love everything pink! I think I'd even love a pink monster!" But readers will note that while she's all caught up in her litany of faves ("I love pink cotton candy... pink ice cream... and riding my pink bike past pink flowers"), there's an unmentioned but obvious storm cloud on that pink horizon: her mother is on the verge of delivering a new sibling. And when that baby brother becomes a reality, Penny's world turns a melancholy blue—until she realizes that little Parker is pretty darn pink himself. The plot twist lends needed depth to a familiar ode to all things pink; Doerrfeld's turning-lemonade-into-lemons concept neatly inverts typical displacement themes. And while her ultragirly drawing style (Penny could easily be a distant cousin of Strawberry Shortcake) and premise do little to challenge the idea that pink is for girls and blue is for boys, a final scene has the siblings making snow angels—and wearing a bit of both colors. Ages 3–6. (Jan.)