The Goody

Chirton Krauss has a strong sense of responsibility and self-discipline: he always eats his broccoli (“every single stalk”), always uses soap when washing his hands, and always goes to bed right on time. His sister Myrtle, meanwhile, is known to be so incapable of behaving that she isn’t invited to birthday parties anymore. Their brown-skinned parents praise Chirton as “The Goody” (even giving him a badge with that title), decide that Myrtle “isn’t a Goody,” and accept the status quo. But Chirton begins to realize that maybe Myrtle is on to something: she skips her turn cleaning out the pet rabbit’s cage because she knows he’ll do it, and she gets to stay up late because the babysitter can’t deal with disciplining her. “Now... does that sound fair to you?” Child (the Charlie and Lola series) asks, in one of the many times she breaks the fourth wall. The resolution isn’t neat and tidy, and neither are Child’s images, which take her elaborately patterned collaging to a new level in a book that raises provocative and profound questions about expectations, fairness, morality, and pigeonholing. Ages 4–8. (Nov.)