Penny and the Plain Piece of Paper

May 15, 2020
A character, bored of the piece of paper she exists on, ventures forth. From pigtails (three, going straight upward) through football-shaped head and skinny limbs to high heels, Penny is entirely made up of rainbow-colored scribbly lines. No wonder she finds it so monotonous to loll about on an undecorated white sheet of paper. Her eyelids droop with ennui. However, Penny's "plain piece of paper" is anything but. Slightly smaller than--and set askew from--the page of Leshem-Pelly's actual book, Penny's piece of paper has mild crinkles and the faint shading that those crinkles bring, creating an optical illusion that begs to be touched. It seems impossible for Leshem-Pelly's page to feel perfectly smooth, but of course it does. Penny visits other types of paper: an amusingly dull and pompous newspaper, a map with trompe-l'oeil folds, a coloring book. All are hyper-realistic in their portrayal of the material, and each forces an oppressive aesthetic rule on Penny. The arc's explicit message ("Let's make our own rules!") is forgettable, but Penny's journey through varying visual styles is bright, fascinating, and funny, especially when she busts out of a geometric shape that graph paper bullies her into or when a pair of children (one black, one white) cheerfully offers gifts--and offers gifts, and offers gifts. Their textured and confettied realm is, of course, wrapping paper with a repeating design. Irresistibly touchable. (Picture book. 4-8)

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