BIRDIE'S HAPPIEST HALLOWEEN

When Birdie can’t decide what she would like to be for Halloween, a trip to the art museum is inspirational.

Birdie loves everything about fall, especially Halloween and dressing up. She’s been a robot and a mummy princess in years past. But now she just can’t decide. Her friends share their costume ideas, and even her dog, Monster, has an idea of his own. In a masterful spread that shows the exhibits in one room of the museum, Rim portrays Birdie’s delight in the paintings, photos, and sculptures around her; labels, arrows, and short captions tell who they are and why they are famous: Betsy Ross, Neil Armstrong, Joan of Arc, Amelia Earhart, Sandra Day O’Connor, Martin Luther King Jr., William Shakespeare, Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, George Washington, Eleanor Roosevelt, and Leonardo da Vinci. While Birdie’s decision isn’t instantaneous—she first asks her mom if she can really be anything she wants, and she imagines herself as several of those famous figures—her final choice is fitting both for Birdie, a white redhead with strong ideas, and for our current political milieu. Rim’s watercolor, gouache, colored pencil, and collage illustrations suit the fall theme, the colors and patterns blending to create nice, autumnal tableaux.

Yes, readers, you too can be whatever you want, for Halloween and in life.