From: Beth Wright <Beth>
Date: Mon, 8 Dec 1997 14:44:42 +0000

My favorite funny book of the year is Violet, the first book in the 4-part Flower Girls series by Kathleen Leverich, illustrated by Lynne Woodcock Cravath (HarperTrophy, 1997). Violet is the story of a shy nine-year-old (a shrinking Violet) who agrees to be the flower girl in her cousin's punk wedding. In the bowling alley. Wearing a miniskirt and crop top. This book is child-tested funny, and since the_Flower Girls_ series looks like, well, a series on the shelf, it's madly popular with the 2nd to 4th grade set. The other three books (Daisy, Heather, and Rose) are also very good (Rose in particular is quite touching, though never sappy) but Violet is the funniest.

My other favorites for 1997 are Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause (werewolves you can cheer for),
 Shade's Children by Garth Nix (best dystopia since The Giver), The Tulip Touch by Anne Fine (scarier than supernatural horror, since it's so believable), and Wringer, which we've heard about already. Indeed this is a dark bunch of stories, which is maybe why I just reread Violet with such pleasure.

Beth Wright Children's Librarian Edythe Dyer Community Library Hampden, Maine
Received on Mon 08 Dec 1997 08:44:42 AM CST