Slug roundup

Sluggy Slug just won't go. What if Sluggy Slug is bribed with sweets? Will Sluggy Slug remain true to character, even when confronted with the powerful temptation of refined white sugar?

That's pretty much the whole story of Sluggy Slug. And yet, it's enough. It's the rare easy reader board book that's droll enough to make up for the extremely limited vocabulary.

Funny thing about slugs -- so unappealing to step on barefoot (even worse in socks) and yet so charming in a children's book. Or as a stuffed animal. Or both -- as in Bunny Party, one of the many Max and Ruby stories by Rosemary Wells.

Formulaic? Yes, but it's not about the story. It's about Max's party guests, including Can't-Sit-Up-Slug, who ends up slumped on the table.

It figures. How like a slug.

The Ugly Vegetables

At first, this appears to be nothing more than another cheerfully-illustrated picture book about the pleasures of small girl working with her Mom in the garden. But trouble soon appears. Mom keeps doing things differently from the neighbors, marking the garden with mysterious Chinese characters instead of seed packets with flower pictures.

Sure enough, this garden turns out all wrong. The neighbors all have beautiful flowers, but the girl's mother has planted nothing but vegetables. And these are ugly vegetables.

Because this is a book for children, there is a miraculous happy ending that affirms the worth of the vegetables. Even more miraculous, the little community grows to make room for vegetables and flowers both.

Like most of Grace Lin's work, this lovely book aims to portray the Chinese-American experience in particular, but anyone who has ever stood outside mainstream culture can identify with this story.

The Ugly Vegetables, by Grace Lin, ISBN-10: 0881063363, ISBN-13: 978-0881063363