Elspeth Lorraine

Everyone should know I love a dress up moment, so Blanca Gómez's Dress-Up Day was always going to be my jam.

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A little girl is excited to wear her new bunny costume for Dress-Up Day at school, until she has to stay at home sick! Her mom encourages her to wear the costume the next day and she hops to school proudly, only to feel like maybe it wasn't such a good idea. Everyone else is in regular clothes. She is lonely and sad until a new friend shows up … as a carrot! "In a second, we were hopping all around the yard". The two costumes provide such fun, the whole class joins in their game and not only do they have an excellent time, but the little girl gets a new best friend!

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Bits and Pieces: When the little girl cried behind the tree because she was the only one in a bunny costume I was terribly sad. Like maybe too sad for a grown up woman who was safely at home in a regular costume. Luckily these illustrations are so cute I was able to recover. They are like little cut out paper dolls (Actually they were made with paper collage and digital methods, but I like my description better). At one point a kid had a banjo and one kid had a colander on their head and all the teeny backpacks and squeeeeee… Blanca’s imagination is cute!

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Favorite Part: When new friend Hugo the carrot comes running up to say "Be sad no more, little rabbit - your carrot is here!" May we all find our own sweet carrot friend.

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‍Not Sure About: While the overall diversity of the children was well done, it would have been nice to see a differently abled child.

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