Bibsy Cross and the Bad Apple

Starred review from March 11, 2024
Ebullient eight-year-old Bibsy Cross loved everything about her life until she landed in Mrs. Stumper’s class. The teacher “thinks Bibsy talks too much, which isn’t true. She’s just a third grader with a whole lot to say.” Mrs. Stumper sighs whenever Bibsy speaks up in class, labels what she perceives as Bibsy’s inability to keep quiet as “a stone too far”—a phrase that becomes the book’s refrain—and ultimately punches a “worm” hole in the paper apple that represents Bibsy on the class tree, declaring Bibsy’s behavior as “rotten.” In spare, emphatic verse, Scanlon (Everyone Starts Small) writes, “It’s not a real wound, but it feels like one.” The story, punctuated by warmhearted spot cartooning by Ho (Tala Learns to Siva), highlights Bibsy’s supportive homelife and the development of a school science fair project with Bibsy’s best friend that shows the protagonist at her creative best. But the narrative’s real power comes from its poignant depiction of a child coming to terms with an uncomprehending adult, a trajectory that takes Bibsy from befuddlement to despair to speaking truth to power. Bibsy is rendered with pale skin, brown hair, and green eyes on the cover. Ages 7–10. Agent: Erin Murphy, Erin Murphy Literary.