Princess! Fairy! Ballerina!

When three girls get together on a rainy day, deciding what to play isn’t easy. While drab gray clouds hang in the sky outside, inside it’s another story—Murguia (Cockatoo, Too) color coordinates each girl’s outfit (and dialogue) in cheerful colors. “We shall play princess!” announces a brown-skinned girl with pigtails and a blue gown. “Shh, I have two words for you—Fairy. Dust,” responds a redhead in a green fairy outfit with leaves in her shaggy hair. The third girl, with a pink tutu and her blonde hair in a bun, has dance on her mind: “Ballerinas can be beautiful snowflakes or fierce mice.” Murguia uses a light touch to explore the frustrations that can result when compromises are nowhere to be found, telling the story through the girls’ increasingly combative dialogue and airy pencil-and-watercolor artwork that draws out the magical possibilities in each of their pretend-play interests, while also highlighting their growing anger. The eventual solution—embracing the storm outside, instead of the one brewing indoors—proves that sometimes when nobody “wins,” everyone does. Ages 3–5. [em]Agent: Elena Giovinazzo, Pippin Properties. (May) [/em]