I’m a Gnome!

K-Gr 2–“Hey, You! I bet you’re looking for the annual Gnome Festival. Don’t worry I can show you the way.” The unnamed male gnome (“Don’t ask me why the G is silent, because I have no idea!”) guide is dressed in a pointy red hat and has a white beard, belted tunic, and black leggings. As he leads readers to the festival (“Oh, don’t shuffle your feet. We don’t have time for that sort of flumadiddle!”), they encounter elves, dwarves, trolls, and fairies; at each encounter our guide wants to make clear that they are nice and all, but they are not gnomes. (“Don’t you know how to tell the difference between magical creature[s].”) Yet, the more he tries to define what a gnome is and isn’t, the more exceptions he finds. Sometimes gnomes DO wear stripes (elves), use a pickax (dwarves), hang out in swamps (trolls), have wild hair (trolls), and fly (fairies). Arrival at the Festival (“Now you can see just how different we are…”), only shows more of the same similarities until even our guide can’t deny it. Peill-Meininghaus’s text firmly breaks the fourth wall in all the right ways. It’s fun, instructive, just a little cranky, and perfect for reading aloud. The addition of Bernatene’s rich illustrations only enhances the goodness, including detailed depictions of each creature, full-page spreads of their communities, and occasionally the guide taking up half the page looking right at the reader. In addition, dynamic text placement makes everything flow nicely.