Pepper and Me

Gr 1-4–Alemagna’s palette, in bursts of colors that are as effortless as crayon scrawls and chalk-filled sidewalks, reflects the sunny tone of the narrator, who takes a terrible spill in the book’s opening pages. Her leg wound hurts “a lot, a lot, a lot” but it launches her obsession with the creepy scab that forms, which she names Pepper, a tic of her unrequited wish for a dog. The scab has the look and texture of hamburger, just one of the many gross-outs in the narration, and for a long time it seems as if Pepper will never heal. When the scab starts to talk, a friendship of sorts is born; Pepper keeps her company and becomes entwined into the narrator’s memories. After a duly shrunk Pepper falls off into the sheets, shiny new skin reminds the narrator of her friend, and, happily, she gets a dog. The earnest text is so intent on mimicking child’s speech and colloquialisms, even in Pepper’s dialogue, that it becomes condescending, a tone only older readers will notice. Younger ones may be intrigued by the ick factors and find the life span of a scab pretty compelling material.