PEACHALOO IN BLOOM

A quick-witted preteen challenges a country club tycoon while visiting her grandmother’s peculiar hometown.

After inquisitive 12-year-old Peachaloo Piccolozampa is stung by a wasp at her grandmother Helena’s favorite swimming spot in Fourwords, Pennsylvania, she acquires EWP—extra wasp perception—which allows her to understand the real meaning behind people’s words. Peachaloo applies her new skill when Major Gasbag and Georgie, his grandson, arrive in town after purchasing the historical Ajax Mansion, which once belonged to a community of rope-jumping craftspeople and artisans with a love of nature and no use for luxury. Major Gasbag plans to fence off the forest and other natural resources around the mansion, including Helena’s swimming hole, and build a country club accessible only to wealthy townspeople. In this quirky and whimsically narrated small-town story, Helena, Peachaloo, and best friend Lily protest Major Gasbag’s plans, all while preparing for the annual end-of-summer pageant. Simple, stylized line illustrations accompany the text, bringing the town of Fourwords to life. Humor joins clever dialogue and an engaging plot that will sweep readers away to a whirlwind ending. Peachaloo limps due to having one leg that’s shorter; she takes pride in her physical difference and loves her cane. Main characters are cued white. Lily reports an odd exchange after asking her father, Ira Schwartz, whether their surname, which means black, means they have Black ancestry; he says maybe someone in their family was a soot-covered chimney sweep or just black-haired.

Eccentricity abounds in this fantastical underdog tale of natural and historical preservation.