Different Drummer: Oddrey by Dave Whammond

ODDREY HAD ALWAYS KNOWN SHE WASN'T LIKE EVERYBODY ELSE.

HER DAD SAID SHE DANCED TO THE BEAT OF HER OWN DRUM.

HER DOG, ERNIE, SAID, "MEOW!"

Even as a babe in her high chair, Oddrey proudly stacks her peas in a pyramid.

Her hopscotch layout looks like the floor plan for an avant garde art museum.

Her snow igloos are spray-painted in a rainbow of colors.

BUT NOT EVERYONE APPRECIATED HER UNIQUE STYLE.

Oddrey's art teacher looks askance at her blue apples. When a downpour appears at recess,  she plays on happily while the rest of the kids splash and slog for the school door.

SOMETIMES ODDREY FELT LONELY

.

Then their teacher announces that their class play is going to be The Wizard of Oz. You would think a savvy teacher could find a quirky role for Oddrey in that venerable oddball of a story. But, NO! Oddrey is assigned to be a tree. She optimistically designs herself an outstanding tree costume with multicolored leaves, but the teacher nixes the fancy foliage, gives her a boring brown tunic and a silly cap with twigs on top, and puts her in the back row.

Tree Number Two tries to keep her spirits (and foliage) up, but when the curtain rises on the performance, Oddrey has a sinking feeling. All is not well in Wizard-of-Ozville. Actors cower behind the scenery, stumble all over the stage, knock down the props, and, worst of all, forget their lines:

DUH DUH DUH DUH

Only Oddrey stays in character. This disaster drama calls for improvisation, and we know just the girl for that role!

It's stage fright night in Dave Whamond's brand-new Oddrey (Owlkids Press, 2012), as Oddrey joins other individualistic protagonists--Ian Falconer's Olivia in Olivia Acts Out, Julie Andrews' Geraldine in The Very Fairy Princess Takes the Stage, and Rob Scotton's Splat in  Splat the Cat: Splat the Cat Sings Flat (I Can Read Book 1) and shows just who has that star quality necessary to step up to the footlights and save the show in the nick of time.