
Veronica is one hippopotamus among many in her mud bank. But there's one talented bear pianist who discovers his friends are "the most important audience of all."Īddie Herrmann (1853-1932) of London "never wanted to be ordinary," she wanted to "astonish, shock and dazzle." Mara Rockliff and illustrator Iacopo Bruno's Anything but Ordinary Addie (Candlewick, ages 6-9) is a big, bold picture-book biography as dazzling as its long-forgotten subject, the "Queen of Magic" who spent 65 years as a performing magician and whose extraordinary illusions were admired by thousands, including Harry Houdini. Plenty of spotlight-seekers would disagree with Emily Dickinson about the dreary nature of fame, including real-life British magician Adelaide Herrmann and a fictional hippo named Veronica.


How dreary to be somebody! How public, like a frog To tell your name the livelong day To an admiring bog! -from Emily Dickinson's "I'm Nobody! Who Are You?"
