Dirty Gert

PreS-K—Gert loves playing in dirt: digging holes, making mud pies, even eating it. Her parents indulge her earth-loving ways, leaving their daughter to spend most of her time with the chatty worms. While eating mud in the rain one day, the combination of soil and water causes Gert to put down roots and develop treelike appendages. Others are not so enthusiastic about her changes: her brother covers her with a trash can; the neighbors think she needs to be cleaned; and then the lawyers, news reporters, and Hollywood crews show up to capitalize on Gert's strange transformation. "The lawyers called. They were appalled!/No one had legalized her." The little girl-tree begins to wilt under all of the attention, so, in an anticlimactic ending, her parents bring Gert in to the safety of the house for a meal: dirt, of course. Arnold's cartoonlike big-eyed, big-headed characters give the story his signature touch of humor and are the book's strength. Gert's wild nature is evident in her three askew ponytails and the smudges of dirt that cover her face in nearly every illustration. The story is set almost completely in the backyard, but Gert is still seen from a variety of perspectives, including as a giant from a worm's-eye view. The rhyming text introduces great vocabulary words, like "photosynthesize" and "botanist," but readers never actually hear from Gert or learn of her thoughts about her transformation, which limits the depth of the story.—Marian McLeod, Darien Library, CT