Potato Pants!

August 6, 2018
In this offbeat picture book, the clothes make the... tuber? That’s how Potato sees things, barely containing his excitement, even doing the Robot (well, “PO-bot”) before rushing down to the one-day Potato Pants sale at Lance Vance’s Fancy Pants Store. (“I want a stripey pair just like the ones in the window, with stripey suspenders for added stripey-ness!”) But his enthusiasm quickly deflates when he sees Eggplant, who knocked him down the day before. Potato’s resulting anxiety over entering the store unfolds over spot illustrations that show emotive, newly trousered ’taters and Potato attempting to take his business elsewhere in comic talk bubbles containing amusing asides. Just when all hope of scoring a pair of pants seems lost, Eggplant and Potato clear up their misunderstandings, and Potato becomes a dud-less spud no longer. The story by Keller (We Are Growing!), buoyed by her kinetic mixed-media compositions (including potato stamps), blends humor and a theme of forgiveness. Final pages pay tribute to designer Tubérto and his Potato Pants collection. Ages 4–8. Agent: Steven Malk, Writers House.

August 1, 2018
Nightshades clash more than just their personalities in this high-energy picture book.A potato is very excited about getting a pair of potato pants. He rushes to Lance Vance's Fancy Pants store, along with a horde of other tubers, googly eyes, smiles, and teeth drawn haphazardly onto collaged-in photographs and drawings. But one giant eggplant is also in the pants store, trying on a loud yellow garment patterned with pineapples. At first the potato argues that "Eggplants don't even wear pants!" (perhaps that would be too ridiculous). It turns out that "Yesterday was Eggplant Pants Day," but the potato is still suspicious; "Yesterday," he says, "I was walking along, minding my own potato-y business...when he ran by and PUSHED ME right into a trash can!" Not wanting to patronize the same establishment, the potato lurks outside the store, even calling a grocery store in the hopes they might sell tater togs (or even a pair of "cucumber cords"), to no avail. Finally he bursts into the store, sending the eggplant flying, only to find that another root has snatched up the last pair of pants. Two apologies and one pair of display pants later, the conflict is all patched up, and the two friends dance the Robot. Zany and meandering, this story will make kids laugh despite the uneven pacing and maybe even model the art of apology.A high-energy read with plenty of kid appeal. (Picture book. 3-6)

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Starred review from August 1, 2018
Grades K-2 *Starred Review* In a manic tale that's going to be very hard to read without inducing peels of laughter, a potato almost misses out on a sale at Lance Vance's Fancy Pants Store. When he spots an eggplant who had once given him a rude shove trying on a pair at Lance Vance's, Potato refuses to rush into the store with his fellow spuds. By the time he determines that no other store carries potato pants, the racks are empty. Worse yet, in bursting through the door, he startles Eggplant into ripping his new pants. Uh oh, is it time for mashed potatoes? To panicky Potato's amazement, though, Eggplant only wants to apologize! Better yet, it just happens that there's one pair of potato pants left, on the mannequin in the window, and that just happens to be the very stripy pair? with stripey suspenders for added stripey-ness! ?that Potato has craved since the beginning. Along with filling her pages with tubers of diverse sorts, fitted with cartoon faces and bulging eyes, Keller offers a sprawling line of potato-shaped pants styled (by guest designer Tub�rto) in a great variety of loud stripes, checks, and plaids. She also constructs an alliteration-rich narrative using plenty of exclamation points and big type in multiple colors to crank the volume up even further. It's potato pandemonium, any way you slice it.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2018, American Library Association.)