LOLLY ON THE ICE

A timid young athlete takes a chance.

Lolly loves to ice skate. Drifting across a frozen pond, effortless as a falling snowflake, she leaps and loops with confidence as Dad cheers her on. But as comfortable as Lolly is on the ice, happy to perform for an audience of one, her knees begin to knock the moment onlookers tune in. In fact, during her audition for the big winter ice show, her performance jitters prove so powerful that she’s frozen to the spot, a showing that ultimately lands her the role of a (stationary) snowman. Disappointed by the result—and dispirited by the unbecoming costume it requires—Lolly glumly prepares for the performance until one fateful rehearsal, when a member of the snowflake trio sustains a season-ending injury. With the show’s biggest number now in jeopardy, Lolly knows just what to do, if she can only find the courage to act. Brannen’s gently told work is a fairly straightforward tale of a youngster confronting performance anxiety. Readers similarly plagued by self-doubt will certainly find an emotional mirror here. Tan-skinned, red-haired Lolly is depicted as physically larger than her peers in Brannen’s graceful, muted artwork—a fact that the author/illustrator never calls attention to in her text; refreshingly, her protagonist’s insecurities aren’t linked to her size. Lolly’s diverse community is uniformly supportive, self-doubt her only adversary and one much more gratifying to best.

Cozy and encouraging.