Mad About Plaid by Jill McElmurry
ISBN: 0358172446
Format: Picture Book Fiction
Goodreads

I was excited to see a new book from the creator of the Little Blue Truck series, but this one just misses the mark for me. A young girl finds a plaid purse in the park, and soon the plaid begins to spread over her body and throughout the town. Everything is plaid! She turns the purse inside out to show its blue interior, and soon the entire town is blue! She begins singing and being silly in order to “cure the blues” bringing the town back to its typical multicolored way of life.

The illustrations are fun, whimsical, and bring out the humor of the book. The story, however, isn’t the best. The plaid spreads like an infectious disease so this book could either be helpful or cause kids more anxiety during the Covid pandemic. The ending seemed to come out of nowhere — all of a sudden, the girl knows just what to do to fix it without any lead up or explanation about why she suddenly knows. An additional purchase for larger libraries though demand may be higher because of the author’s notoriety. Recommended for readers 3 and up.

Reviewed by Jessie Trafton, Skidompha Library, Damariscotta, ME