TOTALLY UNCOOL

“Dad’s new girlfriend is weird. Totally uncool,” declares the young female narrator. That fact will be difficult for children to believe, because Sweet Potato has dreadlocks, high tops, and tuba-playing in her favor and seems far more interesting than Dad. But the narrator has a right to her opinions, which gradually soften from complaints (“She doesn’t bake cookies”) to statements (“She sings opera to her goldfish”) to some very faint praise (“She never calls me stupid”). Drawn in bright pastels, Monroe’s heroine examines the new girlfriend’s funky boots and hair with the eyes of a minx; these intriguing illustrations carry readers along, even without more indications in the text—for children with their own parental dating problems—of how the narrator came to change her mind. (Picture book. 5-8)