Violet and Victor Write the Best-Ever Bookworm Book

October 13, 2014
Twins collaborate (sort of) to write a story in this first picture book from Kuipers (Lost for Words). Violet Small, “six minutes older” than brother Victor, is an expert speller, but she relies on him for ideas. Not that she always takes them: Victor’s idea for a story about Wilbur, “the biggest, strongest, bravest worm in the worm farm,” immediately morphs into a tale about “Violet... the cleverest, strongest, bravest girl in the whole entire school.” In color-coded mixed-media illustrations (purple elements signify Violet’s contributions to the developing story, orange for Wilbur), Murguia (I Feel Five!) creates extravagant visual representations of the possibilities that await readers (and writers) of stories: a volcano crafted of dictionary pages joins origami birds and elves and dragons that could have wandered out of one of Andrew Lang’s Fairy Books. While the twins’ relationship isn’t exactly a balanced one (Victor basically acquiesces to Violet’s inner editor throughout), it’s believable, entertaining, and likely to inspire readers to try putting their own stories together (with or without sibling input). Ages 3–6. Author’s agent: Jackie Kaiser, Westwood Creative Artists.

October 15, 2014
Twins collaborate in writing an original story about a "book-eating monster."When bossy Violet Small decides to "write the best-ever book in the whole entire world," she cajoles her twin brother, Victor, into helping. Far more interested in his pet worms, Victor suggests their hero should be a strong, brave worm, which Violet promptly changes to a strong, brave girl named Violet. Overhearing the school librarian complain that pages are missing from a book, Victor creates a gripping plot starring their heroine, who "creeps by comic books," "slips through stories," "eyeballs encyclopedias," "peers in pages" and "flies through fairy tales" in her quest to save the library from a terrible book-eating monster. The twins' editorializing is tracked from page to page, with Violet speaking in purple type and Victor in orange, while their versions of the story appear in childlike print in lavender and orange notebook-paper text boxes. Murguia comically presents the twins in graphite pencil sketches and, in "homage to the printed page," combines Photoshopped multimedia images from books, maps, library cards and origami sculptures to create fantastical backgrounds for their fictional hunt for the not-so-terrible book-eating monster. Clever fare for aspiring bookworms (especially siblings). (Picture book. 4-7)

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