cover image Beard Boy

Beard Boy

John Flannery, illus. by Steven Weinberg. Putnam, $16.99 (32p) ISBN 978-0-399-17336-3

Flannery debuts with a sweetly goofy story about a young family that includes an emotive boy with a beard fixation. Luckily for Ben, there’s no shortage of facial hair to admire as he, his tattooed mother, and his younger sister roam their Brooklynesque neighborhood. “Does it get too warm in the winter?” he asks a man in a wheelchair with a bushy gray beard, and he excitedly points out a rare “ ’stacheburn” on an urban cowboy. The reason that beards fascinate Ben is simple—his lanky father has one—and Ben attempts to fashion one for himself using bath bubbles, peanut butter, and permanent marker. Weinberg (Rex Finds an Egg! Egg! Egg!) works in a playfully disarrayed style, using loose squiggle to outline his characters in bright purple, bringing a jittery energy to the pages. When Ben’s father shows up clean shaven one morning so that he and Ben can “look alike,” the boy isn’t flattered but upset. A visit to the costume store (run by a friend’s two fathers) provides them with both extravagant beards and an experience to share. Ages 3–5. Illustrator’s agent: Marcia Wernick, Wernick & Pratt Agency. (May)