Juno Valentine and the Fantastic Fashion Adventure

Picture day is coming up, and Juno Valentine doesn’t have any idea what she’s going to wear. Her friends have planned out exactly how they would like to look, but she’s torn. As she’s pondering what to do, her little brother wanders into her closet and she has to chase after him. Her closet transforms into a magical place with all the shoes she could ever imagine. Her brother puts on a pair of swashbuckling boots, and, all of a sudden, they’re on a ship with Grace O’Malley who gives Juno a pirate hat to wear on adventures. Then she finds Audrey Hepburn who gives her a pair of pants and reminds her to dance because it makes everything more fun. She also meets Annie Oakley, Simone Biles, and Michelle Obama among others. Juno comes out of her closet in her perfect picture day outfit, and even though her mom asks if she’s sure that’s what she wants to wear, Juno wins Most Likely to Be Herself and No One Else in the yearbook.

Juno Valentine and the Fantastic Fashion Adventure, a really great book for young girls (and boys), is full of examples of female role models. There is even a guide at the end of the book with a list of all the women who are featured in the story with highlights from their lives and careers. The story is well-written and engaging. The dialogue is easy to read but doesn’t use an oversimplified vocabulary as some writing for children does.

The illustrations of Juno Valentine and the Fantastic Fashion Adventure are very colourful and in a collage style that uses images of fabric, hair, plants and other textures, integrated with more traditional illustrations. The backgrounds become more enveloping when Juno is in the magical closet which sets the stage for her to adventure in each of the worlds the famous women inhabit.