Combine Seuss-like rhymes with a dash of Roald Dahl’s Matilda, make the protagonist nonbinary, and you might come up with a book like Katerina Cruickshanks. “Katerina Cruickshanks can put on a show—anytime, anywhere, they’re ready to go,” we read. Katerina is full of energy and imagination, always ready to cartwheel, bark at the postman, or “frimble and hoot to a runcible moon.” They’ll lead their friends into climbing piles of furniture … that aren’t quite stable. One day their antics go too far, and their friends decide they’re tired of getting in trouble while being around them. They ask Katerina to go away.
Things are nice and quiet for a while, but soon the friends realize their lives are much duller without Katerina around. They want them back, and send a note of apology. Katerina is unbowed, and says they’ve been invited to tour the world with their one-person show. The friends beg them to stay because “you make life grand in your own special way,” but demand they tone down the extremes of their behavior.
Katerina agrees, but chides the friends on having left them out. Katerina also has terms of their own. Everyone comes to an agreement in the end, leading to a celebratory final spread.
Katerina’s nonbinary identity is incidental to the plot, which offers a light lesson about appreciating those who can be a little too much—but also how to confront friends about bothersome habits without losing their friendships or requiring anyone to change who they are deep down. Marvelous fun, with bright illustrations to match.
Katerina is White; other characters are a variety of racial/ethnic identities.
