Baby Don't Smoke

Gr 6 Up—Maria, a young mother, falls asleep while smoking and dreams about a public-service announcement about a fire and the dangers of cigarettes. The dream sequence has some inventive ways to reinforce the fact that smoking is bad, with metaphoric representations of its monetary, hygienic, and health costs, and the pervasive cultural pressure to light up is fairly well illustrated. It's all considerably over-the-top, including absurdly unrealistic dialogue chock-full of statistics unlikely to change any minds. Brown has made a career out of detailed and realistic diagrams of superhero props and weapons; his character work here is much less sure-handed, especially in the more fanciful visuals. However, any success he may have had is significantly undercut by the computer coloring, which is garish and artificial and removes any possibility of aesthetic appeal. The volume closes with eight pages of facts, quizzes, and related URLs. Well-meaning, factually sound, oddly fanciful, and utterly fruitless, this book will likely reach no one.—Benjamin Russell, Belmont High School, NH