FLYAWAY KATIE

A joyous cure for a case of the doldrums. Katie is “feeling gray” and she looks it: she’s outlined in gray-black lines and filled in with negative white-space that looks especially gray because the pages’ other negative spaces are light blue and pale warm yellow. Trying to cheer herself up, she dons a large green hat and bright yellow tights, which she pulls endearingly halfway up her face. Hmm, “not bright enough,” she tries more colored clothing, lipstick, and paint on her face (blue) and arms (orange stripes). Suddenly she feels “a flittery fluttery flighty fizzling!” and Katie—amid bursts of splattered color—flies into the painting on her wall, where she spends the afternoon with crazily multicolored birds. No longer literally or emotionally gray, a newly pink-skinned Katie leaps delightedly out of the painting into her bath, paint-colored bathwater splashing everywhere. Exuberant, to say the least. (Picture book. 2-5)