Always Room For...: Just One More by Jennifer Hansen Rolli

RUBY WAS ALWAYS ASKING FOR JUST ONE MORE....!

One more minute of sleep after the alarm goes off, one more ride on the coin-operated horsey, one more penny to toss in the wishing pool!

Obviously, Ruby is an only child, the only kid on the page, and for her fond mother, what's one more hair thingy in the do, one more sip from her sippy cup, one more.... well, whatever there is to want?

...until the two decide to top off a day's doings with an ice cream cone. Will Ruby be happy with a single scoop of (you guessed it!) tutti frutti?

Fat chance! She wants one more--a dip of dark chocolate, then a mint chocolate chip, lemon gelato, cherry supreme, and even more. When the scoops total seven, the result is no surprise to anyone but Ruby.

SPLAT!

As most kids learn the hard way, there is such a thing as too much of a good thing.

Ruby reforms (sort of), in Jennifer Hansen Rolli's latest, Just One More (Viking Press, 2014), resolving to have just one from now on, although her one bath toy is a floaty yellow ducky big enough for a swimming pool and her bedtime story book is titled The World's Complete Book of Fairy Tales.

To emphasize Ruby's super-sized self-indulgence, Rolli's illustrations feature only Ruby, up close and personal, a sweet-and-smiley but clearly overreaching preschooler. While Ruby's have-it-all attitude in this story doesn't appear to deprive anyone else, she at least learns that there's just right and then there's too much. Rolli's artwork is perfectly suited to her gentle premise, and kids will predict that telltale Splat! with plenty of giggles.

And for just one more story, double this one with Michael Kaplan's Betty Bunny Wants Everything (Dial Books, 2012). (See review here.)