Just Add Glitter

August 15, 2018
"Glitter, glitter everywhere" in a rhyming celebration of sparkles to share!The young protagonist, who wears pigtails and a handmade crown, spies a package left on the doorstep by the letter carrier. A shimmering tag hints at sparkly contents. The child opens up the box and dashes glitter on the crown, spilling sprinkles onto the table and floor. Entranced, the child goes to their room, eager to brighten the walls, the mirror, and the bedspread. Soon, colorful rays of glitter spray across the page, as the celebration accelerates until our shiny star realizes the glitter has covered everything in a rainbow quilt--including the child and their cat! A realization about the value of creativity restores balance...for now; the final spread hints at a sequel with the arrival of a new package on the doorstep. Young artists will delight in the creative joy the protagonist displays but will appreciate that even sparkly glitter must be restrained sometimes. The drawn, cut-paper, and digitally colored illustrations add texture and depth to the story, transitioning from simple colors against black-and-white backgrounds to splashes of frenetic color and then back again. Despite a few meter missteps ("Are your walls asking for glitz? / Looking for more flashy bits? / Time for puttin' on the ritz?"), the jaunty text makes for a lively read-aloud, complete with the repeatable, titular refrain, "Just add glitter!" The protagonist has tan skin and straight, black hair.A great rainy-day read-aloud complete with built-in craft ideas. (Picture book. 4-8)

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September 10, 2018
When life hands you lemons, make lemonade—but when life’s got you “bored, ignored or feeling down,” writes DiTerlizzi (I Wanna Be a Cowgirl), “just add glitter.” Indeed, a girl’s rainy day turns around when a box containing several bottles of colored glitter arrives on her doorstep. What starts as a series of modest embellishments (the girl covers her paper crown in green sparkles) soon becomes a way of life: “Have you made your whole world gleam?/ Do you love this glistening dream?/ Then grab a ton, have fun, and scream,/ ‘Add more glitter!’ ” Cotterill (Charlotte and the Rock) embeds actual glitter into her hand-drawn and cut-paper pictures, and the dazzle of it all, combined with the exuberance of the protagonist and her cat sidekick, will sweep many readers up into joyful glittermania. Rest assured, though, that the final spreads show the girl diligently sweeping up mounds of glitter, while the cat tries to scratch the stuff out of its fur (good luck with that). A final image teases that there may be more crafty fun to come. Anyone for googly eyes? Ages 4–8.