In Eric Barclay's debut book for children, young Paige denies her vision problems, despite obvious clues to the contrary. For starters, she holds her book upside down and wears shoes that don't match. Accessible, cartoonish illustrations lead readers through what's in store for Paige on the way to seeing 20/20.
The author-artist plays up the humor in her situation: he pictures Paige standing on her desk to see the blackboard, and music notes tumbling off the treble staff due to her off-kilter violin playing; she brings home a very smelly kitty (aka skunk). But her parents take Paige's predicament seriously. Barclay goes through the steps to setting things right. The heroine reads an eye chart, gets drops in her eyes, then looks through "a mask with nobs and buttons" to determine what's affecting her eyesight. A spread of Paige trying on frames shows her options at the eyeglass store until she finds the right fit, and another demonstrates the "before" (blurry) and "after" (crystal clear) of what Paige experiences with her prescription filled.
Barclay provides a coda that keeps the humor front and center. Pair this with Arlo Needs Glasses by Barney Saltzberg to give children another example of finding comical parts of the problem while taking its solution seriously. --Jennifer M. Brown, children's editor, Shelf Awareness