One Potato Review

This book is interesting in the manner of something not entirely pulled off, though it’s a high wire act well worth witnessing. The characters here are American cities, all of them strange to one another, who are invited to a party thrown by New York, so perhaps our occasional bewilderment is not out of place with the host’s when he wonders “Will this be a fiasco? San Francisco is sensitive, named for St. Francis (Italian and holy), who spoke with the birds. And Chicago is fearsome, ferocious. Has to be. With a name like stinking onions, you’ve got to stick up for yourself.” The book is full of busted syntax like that, and interesting facts sprayed around, and Raschka’s swirly illustrations (there really is no one who looks anything like him). While the result can seem flighty at times, and unfocused, still maybe that’s right, because we don’t always fit together so neatly as a country built out of other counties, and often it takes a little rooting around in all of the uproar to find one voice. Complete with happy ending.