With The Verts: A Story of Introverts and Extroverts, their third picture-book collaboration following Lambslide and Escape Goat, adult-book titan Ann Patchett and Fancy Nancy illustrator Robin Preiss Glasser step away from the barnyard and into an apartment building, where two odd-couple siblings act out a most entertaining case study in opposites.
It's young Ivan's birthday, and he doesn't want so much as his photo taken to mark the occasion. (He consents to raising his foot from behind the couch for Grandmother Vert's camera, but that's it.) Ivan's older sister, Estie, has a different perspective on birthdays: she rounds up her human and animal neighbors to toast Ivan at the Verts' apartment. "I don't think Ivan wants a party," the siblings' mom tells Estie, but she's not having it. Ivan, meanwhile, comes up with ways to elude the spotlight and enjoy his big day. Grandmother Vert just doesn't get her grandchildren, prompting their dad to twice offer some variation on "Ivan is Ivan, and Estie is Estie"--in other words, "The kids are all right."
Glasser comes shining through with her flouncy and unmistakable ink, watercolor, gouache, and colored-pencil art, and she and Patchett give readers everything they need to be amused by Estie's blind spot as far as Ivan goes. Setting aside any inkling that a child Estie's age (she appears to be around seven) would have registered Ivan's introverted personality by now, The Verts is a rollicking be-yourself message book that welcomes readers of both "-vert"s to the party. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author