Smell My Foot! by Cece Bell

Robbin Friedman is a children's librarian at the Chappaqua Library. She writes reviews for School Library Journal, serves on ALSC's Budget Committee, and reads a lot of science fiction.

In her new early reader series, "Chick and Brain", Cece Bell ostensibly sends up stilted "Dick and Jane" primers. Of course, today’s beginning readers don’t know that. They’ve never heard of Dick and Jane. And the rare child who might understand the reference probably wouldn’t associate those dry slices of white suburbia with these two weirdos.

Image from Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot! by Cece Bell

Fortunately, the first book—Smell My Foot!—shares more DNA with Tedd Arnold or Ethan Long than with Zerna Sharp (two points to anyone who already knew the author of "Dick and Jane").

Using a straightforward comics format broken into four short chapters, Bell introduces her protagonists: Chick, a fastidious yellow bird with a commitment to manners, and Brain, a white human with stick limbs, heart-print boxers, and a brain-like poof of hair atop his head. Bell has mastered the visual elements of comics for early readers, reveling in the intense goofiness of her subjects here.

Simple backgrounds, adequately-sized speech bubbles, and a clean, serif font pair well with the humor of Bell’s oddly-proportioned duo. Characters regularly break the confines of the basic two to four panel pages, but the visual story proceeds smoothly enough that errant feet or beaks won’t confuse beginners. In fact, Bell uses the spatial perspective of the panels beautifully to convey emphasis and tone, as in this page when Brain’s insistent demand grows too large for the panel next to Chick’s consistent denial.

Image from Chick and Brain: Smell My Foot! by Cece Bell

The story—as silly as it sounds—allows for ample word repetition. Brain’s foot smells great! Everyone should smell it! Chick wants to hear please and thank you before agreeing to anything. But once Spot, a hungry dog, has said the magic word, Chick merrily agrees to lunch. Both Brain and the reader recognize that Spot wants to eat Chick. Brain arrives to save Chick and makes Spot pass out because guess what? His other foot smells really bad! Early readers will finish this book experience confidently tackling words like smell, foot, please, sniff, and you’re welcome, some of which will absolutely come in handy again.

With visual support and reinforced vocabulary, this book may offer smooth sailing for some readers looking to branch out from Mo Willems. For certain readers, though, Bell’s quirky Brain may introduce a hiccup. Brain responds to social niceties differently than Chick (and most readers) expect, and while therein lies the fun for some folks, other readers might find the non sequiturs confusing.

Chick corrects Brain and gets the dialogue back on track. But for readers looking to the narrative to confirm they’re reading accurately, Brain’s unusual style may cause them to wonder if they’ve gotten something wrong.

For readers unfazed by Brain’s approach, Cece Bell has brought us something peculiar and effective, presented in a masterful comics package. If the Geisel Committee is looking for a change from more traditional, earnest early readers, they might want to take a big sniff of this one.