Elspeth Lorraine

Folks, we’ve got an excellent beginning sentence this week. “I’m Ari, and I have been arranging things all my life.” Don’t you love when kid’s say “my whole life” or other hyperbole? It’s my favorite. Ari is a small child with fluffy black hair, tan skin and a very jazzy outfit (white pants?! Who can keep those clean?!). Ari starts off innocuously arranging blocks and slowly graduates to arranging books, pots and pans, all the flowers in the garden and so much more! Ari then moves on to their biggest project yet, Zoo animals! This does not go to plan. Ari must apologize, set things right and go home. When they come upon the neighborhood BBQ it looks like a mess, but they have the realization that maybe everything doesn’t need arranging and that’s ok!

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Bits and Pieces: Ari is a gender fluid kid and I liked that instead of it being a big deal we got to focus on what Ari was all about as a person. I also am a former florist so these illustrations were totally my style! Bright and clean and fun and properly arranged!

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Not Sure About: Dude. Organizing this much stuff is … a clinical diagnosis. I arranged ALL my art supplies after reading. It totally flared up that compulsion for me. But also I love organizing my stuff. So I liked it.

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Favorite Part: The art! Katie’s website says she enjoys working with inky paints and then arranging and adding detail digitally. I want to learn at her feet. Or maybe just using our words.

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