I Always, ALWAYS Get My Way

September 28, 2009
At first, three-year-old Emmy gets away with peccadilloes like spilling orange juice on her dad’s trousers and using her older sister’s art materials (“Mom told her she should share with me./ After all... I’m only three”), pinning the blame on her siblings. But when her shenanigans spiral out of control (an early morning ice cream feast, setting loose her brother’s pet lizard, causing the bathtub to overflow), her family wises up. “Mom pointed to the stairs and said,/ 'That’s it, young lady!/ GO TO BED!’ ” British illustrator Parkins (Dick King-Smith’s Sophie books) works in cartoon-style ink and wash, using vignettes to focus on Emmy’s yowls of indignation and insouciant smiles and having fun with Emmy’s more elaborate misdeeds. Newcomer Krasnesky writes tightly disciplined verse that never flags, sprinkled with parenthetical asides and modern phrases (“ 'That’s SO not true, Mom,’ Suzie said”). Mischievous Emmy is a little too manipulative and self-serving to sympathize with completely—but that doesn’t make her any less authentic a character. This is a fast-moving crowd-pleaser made for reading aloud. Ages 4–8.

December 1, 2009
PreS-Three-year-old Emmy wreaks havoc on her entire household. From spilling orange juice on Daddy at breakfast, to adorning her brother's pet iguana in a bathing suit and letting the bathtub overflow, she's got curiosity and mayhem covered. Krasnesky tells the story with flowing rhyme that accommodates the humor of the plot and heightens Parkins's comical cartoon illustrations. "I tiptoed into Tommy's room/and found a way to use the broom/to get the lizard off the shelf, /entirely all by myself." As the star of this story gets into different sticky situations, she continually responds with the adage that "I'm only three," so not much should be expected of her. While her mother seems to respond to the little devil's helpless plea, it isn't long before things snowball and Emmy finds herself in a serious time-out."Adrienne Wilson, Edith Wheeler Memorial Library, Monroe, CT"

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