ISABELLA ABNORMELLA
and the Very, Very Finicky Queen of Trouble
by J. Patrick Lewis & illustrated by Kyrsten Brooker
The nabob of nonsense verse brings readers to the town of Trouble, situated between Good-Grief! and Who’s-to-Blame? (“Three villages exactly almost / Opposite the same . . .”), whose pouting Queen just can’t find a comfortable mattress. Brooker (Nothing Ever Happens on 90th Street, 1997) uses oil paint, found materials, pieces of cloth, clipped photos, and cut paper to create a sumptuous medieval setting with flattened perspectives, populated with gesticulating figures topped by large, expressive faces. After the King proposes several silly solutions, sprightly young Isabella Abnormella Pinkerton McPugh, Keeper of the Royal Cat, brings peace to the royal household at last (and earns herself Princessdom) by inventing the (wait for it) Queen-Sized Water Bed. A natural for reading aloud, this ballad makes a grin-inducing follow-up to any version of “The Princess and the Pea.” (Picture book. 7-10)