Not That Tutu!

February 11, 2013
Colman celebrated the sartorial preferences of babies in Urban Babies Wear Black and its sequels, and she now turns to an older girl, Taylor, who can’t live without her signature garment: “She wore her tutu to school. ‘Not again,’ her mother sighed. She wore her tutu in the pool. ‘Not again,’ her father moaned.” When the tutu becomes too tattered to wear, Taylor debuts a new accessory. Nakata’s paintings of the exuberant heroine and her benevolently exasperated family are characteristically buoyant and warm. Up to age 4.

Taylor, with a recognizably preschool fashion sense, wears her tutu everywhere. The text is a to-the-point list of some of the places Taylor sports her bright pink garment and includes, in dialogue, the bemused comments of her long-suffering family members and friends: "Not again!" Watercolor scenes that stretch across both pages depict a lively preschool girl in said tutu as she sleds, shops, sleeps and even swims (but does little ballet). Nakata's loose and buoyant watercolors capture Taylor's eclectic style as she pairs the tutu with cowboy boots, snow pants and pajamas, until she finally grows tired of it and finds a substitute. While the girl's suburban family is Caucasian, a little more diversity would have been welcome in the depiction of her friends. Attracted by the little tulle tutu on the cover, little ones seeking a ballet-themed tale may be disappointed, but this outing will resonate with any youngster who has worn a favorite outfit to shreds. (Board book. 2-4) COPYRIGHT(1) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.