EVERYTHING IS FINE!

Paulette is a “precious tornado” whose mother loves her—even when she makes a mess at the market.

Paulette’s mother’s mantra? “Everything is fine!” She mitigates every disaster by paying for items that Paulette’s damaged and doling out excuses. When Paulette gets too close to an herbalist’s magic potion—ignoring the “No Touching” sign—nothing seems amiss at first, but the next morning Paulette is missing. Apparently, Paulette’s mother was so exhausted the night before that she slurped Paulette into her belly along with her spaghetti. As Paulette’s mother searches frantically for her daughter, she encounters many other naughty children, all deemed “perfect” by their loving parents. Suddenly ravenous, she devours a long twirling rope of spaghetti given to her by the herbalist; Paulette uses the strand of spaghetti to climb up and out. The setup may lead some to expect a cautionary tale with a clear takeaway; such readers will be disappointed by the meandering narrative. Reunited, the pair breeze into town, “a whirlwind of noodles and mayhem,” evidently having learned no lessons from their ordeal (though they warn a curious tot to stay away from the herbalist’s wagon). Eye-catching, ethereal illustrations in pastel tones with saturated pops of neon are spattered with marbling ink, making for chaotic scenes that are hard to follow. Paulette and her mother present white with golden curls; other characters are diverse.

A quirky story of a plucky mother-daughter pair that reads like a fable missing its moral.