The Endfixer

Seeking closure takes on a new meaning in this woolly reflection on being what Vola calls “an endfixer... someone who fixes the ends of stories.” Too many tales, the first-person narrator asserts, end “in the very worst way,” and textured illustrations elucidate specific complaints. Accompanying “too long” is a queue that extends for three spreads, in which a figure resembling an Indigenous caricature smokes a pipe standing alongside mostly fanciful creatures. Though the narrator hopes to fix things “when I grow up,” a sudden, late-story concession suggests that such work may be beyond their control. Maybe it’s actually the doing of story-making mice headquartered in a multi-room factory? Though the meta-conceit of malleable endings and the plethora of visual details satisfy, having agency, however fanciful, dangled and then taken away may prove frustrating for child readers. Characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)