Mustache Baby

K-Gr 1—This nonsense picture book is about a baby who is born with a mustache. As Billy grows up, the mustache informs his various identities: cowboy, ringleader, Spanish painter, sword fighter, and man of the law. But then, it grows and curls and becomes a bad-guy mustache. Billy then becomes a cereal criminal, a bank robber, and a cat burglar, and gets thrown in jail. Fortunately, his parents are able to reassure him that everyone has a bad-mustache day. Billy becomes a good guy again and scoots off to play with his new neighbor, a little bearded guy. Digitally rendered illustrations are saturated matte cartoons. For the most part, they mirror the text, although the humor is often in the contradictions; while the narrator claims that "everyone loved having Officer Billy around," for example, his sister and brother glare at him for ruining their play. Quirky, silly fun.—Jennifer Miskec, Longwood University, Farmville, VA