Camilla Cream wants to fit in, so she conforms, denying herself the things she craves—lima beans, for example—if the other kids frown upon them. She wakes up one morning covered head to toe with party-colored stripes—not the state of affairs aspired to by a conventionalist, but it's only the beginning of her troubles.

Shannon's story is a good poke in the eye of conformity—imaginative, vibrant, and at times good and spooky—and his emphatic, vivid artwork keeps perfect pace with the tale.