THE PHONY BALONEY OF GRETA MALONEY

In Clark’s picture book, a young girl’s big imagination sometimes gets her into big trouble.

Greta Maloney is an only child with a dog named Digby, but she wishes she had a brother so she could have “someone else to dream with.” The stories she tells at school are as big as her dreams. When a classmate mentions her brother, Greta suddenly claims to have 12 brothers and 14 sisters; when someone else presents a pet turtle at show-and-tell, Greta says she has a pet dinosaur. Her neighbor Cooper Carlson calls her out with a slogan that catches on: “That’s phony baloney, Greta Maloney!” Nonetheless, she keeps spinning yarns. Their teacher tries her best to be gentle with Greta’s big personality, but her classmates are less kind. The next morning, Greta’s mother urges her to be her genuine self, and she pivots to a new approach. In this book, Clark effectively offers her most exuberant young readers a protagonist who stays true to her epic imagination, but also models how to harness one’s talents in ways that can benefit others.  Clements’ full-color cartoon illustrations are full of the same boisterous energy as the main character, blurring the lines between fact and Greta’s fictions; one features a rocket ship shooting right through the classroom.

An energetic tale for kids that explores different ways to tell stories.