Dirtball Pete

Starred review from July 26, 2010
Debut writer Brennan’s wonderfully stolid narrative voice establishes its authority from the get-go: “Dirtball Pete looked like something the cat dragged in,” it starts. “It was a fact.” Pete’s stay in the bathtub before his school’s “Fifty States and Why They’re Great” presentation is a long one (“I’m going to leave that auditorium proud of you,” his mother says grimly, scrubbing him with a brush), but, mysteriously, he still smells terrible afterwards. “Oh, no!” his mother says. “Pet ferrets must stay home!” Jittery digital cartoons show Pete with a big head, spindly appendages, scrabbly hair that refuses to be tamed, and tic-tac-toe dirt stains spattered liberally across his mug. Unexpectedly, though, Dirtball Pete outdoes himself at school that night. He’s the best Pennsylvania ever—broadcasting facts about the state while the rest of his cardboard-clad classmates whisper and mumble—despite the fact that an unexpected search for his speech leaves him looking like his usual dirtball self. It’s tough to make a book sardonic and heartwarming at the same time, but Brennan nails it. Ages 4–7.

July 1, 2010
K-Gr 3—-irtball Pete is a nice kid who can't help getting messy and stinky. When it's time for him to perform in THE FIFTY STATES AND WHY THEY'RE GREAT! day at school, his mom scrubs him down, dresses him up, and tells him to make her proud. Inevitably, Pete gets filthy while chasing down his blown-away notes, but his confident performance in the show makes his mom proud anyway. This is a pleasant little lesson in not judging a book by its cover, with the didacticism mostly offset by the quirky storytelling and illustrations. The almost-adult humor is layered into the chipper text, with lines like "no one can tell the wind what to do—not a kite, not a sailboat, not a businessman's toupee." The cartoon illustrations look like the Peanuts gang on caffeine: short children with large heads, but with a more kinetic energy than the work of Charles Schulz (Pete's similarity to Pigpen enhances this impression). The message is timeless, the setting modern, with Pete's multicultural class and the parents snapping photos with their phones. One old-fashioned element of the story may bother safety-conscious adults: due to his bulky Pennsylvania costume, Pete rides loose in the back of the station wagon. This story would be useful to support character-education topics like respect, judging others, self-esteem, and so on.—"Heidi Estrin, Feldman Children's Library at Congregation B'nai Israel, Boca Raton, FL"

Copyright 2010 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

July 1, 2010
Grades 1-3 Strenuous efforts to clean up a soul mate of Charles Schulzs Pigpen go messily for naught in this lighthearted suggestion that inner worth is not reliant on outer hygiene. Though Brennan includes adults in her simply drawn illustrations, she follows Schulzs lead otherwise in depicting children with small bodies topped by oversized heads and easily-visible, button-eyed features. The day he is supposed to play Pennsylvania in his schools 50 States and Why Theyre So Great celebration, young Pete is taken firmly in hand by his determined mother, who scrubs him thoroughly and shepherds him personally to the showfending off the lads muddy dog and stinky ferret on the way. Alas, a frantic chase after his windblown speech leaves Pete as filthy as ever, but his unwavering self-confidence is justified when his positively charismatic performance on the stage leaves the audience agreeing that underneath all that dirt there was a very special boy. Young readers will agree; parents may be less sanguine.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)