Geisel Award winner Josh Schneider (Tales for Very Picky Eaters) invents a hard-to-like heroine who will soon win over readers as she develops some perspective and a sense of empathy.
"It was Dana's birthday and she could do whatever she liked," the book begins. Dressed in her favorite birthday dress, Dana eats waffles, calls classmate Anthony an "ickaborse" and pinches him hard at the bus stop. At school, she eats two desserts, then eats Anthony's, too: "Dana liked dessert." She hosts a birthday party and opens her presents. When she gets ready for bed, she hears a knock on the door. Anthony has brought her a gift: a white elephant. Adults will immediately get the joke, but children soon will, too, as the burden of the pachyderm plays out. The other children pine for her pet. But, as Dana tells them, "Not everyone deserves an elephant." Youngsters will chuckle over Schneider's watercolor images of the animal depleting Dana's food, usurping her bed and flattening her bike in an attempt to ride it. Finally, Dana finds someone as deserving as she, to whom she can bequeath the elephant.
This humorous tale of comeuppance with its short chapters, repetition of phrases and brief chapters will hook newly independent readers and hold their rapt attention. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness