Just Mabel
Frieda Wishinsky
Paperback
(Gardners Books, April 30, 2004)
Mabel hates her name - it's so boring. She tries a host of new ones, but none of them quite fits. Then she sees a beautiful, glamorous singer on television called Mabel...and decides that her own name is just fine, after all. In the second story, Mabel gets the red dress of her dreams. It makes her feel like a dancer leaping in the air...but her classmates tell her she looks like a tomato. Their testing makes Mabel hate her dress, until she comes to realize that it shouldn't matter what other people say. Full of zip and optimism, these two bubbly stories are perfectly pitched at beginner readers who will respond to their wit and warmth, as well as to their gently reassuring encouragement to learn self-confidence.