Stella & Marigold
by Annie Barrows; illus. by Sophie Blackall
Primary, Intermediate    Chronicle    108 pp.
10/24    9781797219707    $15.99

Stella and Marigold, ages seven and four, are a force to be reckoned with. In eight tightly constructed, linked short stories, we follow the sisters through a domestic plumbing disaster, a visit to the zoo, events at school and preschool, and the construction and maintenance of a close sibling bond. Barrows and Blackall jointly inhabit that authentic childhood territory where the universal ordinary intersects with the specific odd. Stella has the flu. Her mother brings her apple juice. “Stella was surprised at how bad it tasted. It tasted like throat.” The text tells us that as Marigold grows up, Stella explains the world to her. The accompanying illustration shows what some of those explanations might involve—pickles, a jump rope, money, infinity, and more. The stories echo and resonate with one another. The fireplace tiles mentioned in passing in the second story? We finally get to see them near book’s end. The theme here is storytelling, and the book is a little subversive in the best children’s literature tradition, celebrating the thrill of fibbing even as it ostensibly warns against it. Barrows and Blackall walk this tightrope with skill, cheekiness, and palpable pleasure, their tightly interdependent approach to narrative mirroring the supportive and loving relationship of their two stalwart protagonists.

From the ">September/October 2024 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.