Featherlight humor and keen insight distinguish this story about the warring impulses to be good or naughty. Isol’s (It’s Useful to Have a Duck
) rust and sky blue illustrations resemble slightly off-register screen printing; the outlines of the figures are doubled, a deft visual representation of Petit’s dual nature. “Petit is a good boy who plays with his dog,” says the first page; “Petit is a bad boy who pulls girls’ hair,” says the next (he wears a small yet diabolical smile as he tugs a girl’s ponytail, and he’s colored in with the silhouette of a devil). When Petit’s mother asks, “How can such a good boy sometimes do such bad things?” many ideas occur to him: that others seem to like him even when he is bad, and that the more he tries to be good, “the worse things turn out.” “Am I some kind of not-yet-discovered type of monster?” he wonders. With his realization that his mother can also be good and bad, Petit maintains his self-respect and grows in self-knowledge. A gem. Ages 2–5. (Mar.)
