Trick or Treat, Smell My Feet

October 1, 1998
K-Gr 2-Having packed his Martian Space Pilot costume in his bag, Gilbert, the hedgehog introduced in Roses Are Pink, Your Feet Really Stink (Morrow, 1996), trots off to school for a holiday parade and party. Imagine his dismay when he discovers that he has taken his sister Lola's sack and her pink ballerina outfit by mistake. As five of his classmates also decided to be Martian Space Pilots, it's not an unmitigated disaster-so he squeezes into the tutu and toughs it out, encountering surprise but not a trace of derision from his peers. Well, it could happen. De Groat moves her human-proportioned animal cast between a comfortable suburban neighborhood dotted with colorful autumn leaves and a school restroom where the boys change clothes. However skeptical they may be of the mild reaction to Gilbert's costume, young viewers will enjoy the glimpses of loudly colored underwear (plus, for many girls, exotic bathroom plumbing). Despite severely undersized tights, Gilbert isn't made to look all that ludicrous or uncomfortable. Although Lola reclaims her costume for the evening's trick-or-treating, she and her brother at least tinker with gender stereotypes, and that may plant seeds in some readers' minds.-John Peters, New York Public Library