Penelope Crumb is a definite one-off! At nine, nearly ten, she is trouble at school, not because she intends to be naughty, but because she doesn't seem to understand that she is causing ructions. The main theme of this book is friendship, but the underlying theme is Penelope's concern that she will forget her dad who has died. She has a falling out with her best friend Patsy Cline, who then goes on to become best friends with Vera Bogg, and Penelope is desperate to get her back. She goes about this in a number of rum ways, and the upshot is that none of her schemes work. Meanwhile, she has started an Ultra Museum of Forget-Me-Notters in her closet and has amassed a remarkable collection of things having to do with people she knows, both living and dead. This is the result of a school trip to a museum where she has felt that none of her classmates has paid enough attention to the exhibits of people who are dead. Being convinced that forgetting the dead is unforgiveable, she talks about death a lot and calls her dad Graveyard Dead. This worries her mum and her friends, as does her carrying around her dad's old toolbox constantly. Grandpa Felix has the answer: she is an artist, and she should draw pictures of all the things she wants to remember. He gives her a book in which to do just that, and she knows this will help her never to forget. The language in this book is funny, jaunty and very American in style, and one feels that Penelope is destined to a life of being misunderstood - not because she wants to be, but that it is just how she is. The format is full of black and white illustrations, and even the text is illustrative in the sense that all sorts of fonts and bold are used. Quirky and clever, this will appeal to children who feel they are different and hence misunderstood.