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"Rita and Whatsit" by Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod

Author:

Jean-Philippe Arrou-Vignod

Illustrator:

Olivier Tallec

Publisher:

Chronicle 2009

Reviewed by:

John Stewig, Center for Children's Literature, Carthage College

Rita isn’t an easy child.  On her birthday, everything is wrong, as her bad mood prevails.  Until, that is, her present lures her out of that mood.  The adventures of Rita and her dog with one orange eye continue in RITA AND WHATSIT AT THE BEACH (2009).  Both originally published in France, these exemplify what fey visual humor can accomplish with a minimum of lines and almost no color.  And what results when an author understands the quirky nature of children’s thinking, reacting and resisting, only to finally come under the spell of friendship.  In a time when picture books are suffused with more color and design than necessary, this kind of understatement is welcome.  It cleanses the palate of the eye..