A creative and resourceful heroine turns an obsession into an asset in this funny entry from a debut author and illustrator. "Prudy seemed like a normal little girl.... But Prudy collected things." The gently ironic text demonstrates that while collecting is natural ("Prudy's friend Egbert collected butterflies. So did Prudy"), it's the excess that becomes problematic ("Belinda had a stamp collection. So did Prudy... Prudy collected everything"). Thoroughly detailed and delightfully deadpan pencil-and-gouache pictures show Prudy racking up her treasures: "She saved rocks, feathers, leaves, twigs, dead bugs, and old flowers. She kept a box full of interesting fungi in the bottom drawer of her dresser." Finally, when her bedroom door bursts (a series of wordless vignettes shows an explosion of prized possessions being redistributed across the universe), Prudy hits upon a solution: the Prudy Museum of Indescribable Wonderment. In an impressive debut, Armstrong-Ellis has created an endearingly neurotic heroine ("There is no problem!" shouts Prudy at suggestions that she might be a wee bit obsessed). The story reaches zeniths of daffiness several times (she visits a "rock collection" that bears an uncanny resemblance to Stonehenge) but Armstrong-Ellis manages the tone and pacing skillfully, so the comedy never overwhelms the story's all-too-authentic underpinnings. A nudge and tickle in the ribs for packrats of all ages—and the people who tolerate them—from a breakout talent. Ages 4-8. (Oct.)
