The Dress and the Girl

Graceful artwork by Morstad (When Green Becomes Tomatoes) creates an elegiac atmosphere for a story that unfolds in a small Greek village, where blue shutters and red tiles enliven the whitewashed walls. Andros (Charlotte the Scientist Is Squished) writes about a dress ("much like many others, made for a girl by her mother") and a girl; together, they spend their days "picking daffodils, feeling the wind, and staring at the stars" and longing for the extraordinary. When the girl's family emigrates to turn-of-the-century America, the trunk that contains her dress goes missing. One narrative thread personifies the dress, imagining it "searching" the world over for the girl before the dress and the girl, now grown, reunite and remember their shared "singular, stunning, or sensational" history. While the conceit of the dress as an active character feels a bit clunky, the lyrical text and evocative art will make readers linger. Ages 4-8. Author's agent: Lori Kilkelly of Rodeen Literary Management. Illustrator's agent: Emily van Beek, Folio Literary Management. (Aug.)

PreS-Gr 3--An ordinary girl and her favorite dress do ordinary things together every day, but they long for the extraordinary--something singular, stunning, or sensational. One day, the girl and her dress set out on a long journey across the ocean to America. Along the way, they continue to do ordinary things but feel that they may be on the cusp of something extraordinary. The girl and her dress are separated when they reach their destination and they each continue on their own parallel journeys through life. Then one day, something extraordinary happens: the girl, now a woman, is reunited with her favorite dress when she spots it in a store window years later. Wonderfully, the dress is the perfect size for the woman's daughter. And so, a new extraordinary story about a girl and her dress begins. In The Dress and the Girl, Andros tells an immigration tale--an experience that is common but is not always shared. Morstad's light, airy, and simply beautiful illustrations run from cover to cover, including the endpapers, which are in the same pattern as the dress, and act as the perfect accompaniment to the circular plot. Together, the carefully crafted text and gorgeous illustrations pair to tell a truly extraordinary tale. VERDICT A delightful picture book with an important story to be told. Recommended for sharing again and again.--Elizabeth Blake, Brooklyn Public Library