The Enchanted Costume Shop
Wright, Susan Stonebraker. 2004. The Enchanted Costume Shop. PublishAmerica.
Rating:
6
Summary:
The book is about an enchanted costume shop where all of the costumes are alive, communicate, and can even move when they want. Of course, they very seldom move when people are around and they can only communicate with children under the age of 4, so the adults in the story don’t really know what is going. The personalities of the costumes are tied to what they are supposed to portray: gangster costumes are mean and standoffish; medieval costumes are snobs; prison jumpsuit costumes are always trying to hide or make a break for the outside world, etc.
The story begins with the delivery of a dress to the costume shop. It’s owner, Jennifer, is getting ready to go to college and, in the process, is getting rid of a bunch of old things. But rather than give the dress to charity with the other old things, she decides to give it to the costume shop. Because the dress is a simple shift dress, it doesn’t have a particularly unique persona, at least to begin with. Written on the tag is the word “Liz,” so that is the original name for the dress. Liz quickly makes the rounds of the store, meeting all of the characters and learning how things run. She learns about the hospital/seamstress shop where the costumes are fixed, the backroom for the retired costumes and the animal costumes, and about the regular late night dances the costumes hold when the radio turns on between 1:00 and 3:00 am.
The book is actually broken up into three segments, though why the sections break where they do isn’t entirely clear. There are actually a variety of plot lines that run through the story. Following are summaries of the main plots: First, the original owner, Susie, with the help of her assistant, Maggie, turn Liz into a new dress for a beauty competition. Unbeknownst to the original owner, Jennifer, who is the person competing in the competition, Susie and Maggie modify her original dress for the competition and Jennifer wins. After this, Liz’s name is changed to Beauty to fall in line with her new costume name “Beauty Contestant.” Shortly after the beauty pageant, Maggie falls ill. This leads Susie to hire a new assistant, Babs, who turns into the primary antagonist through the book, including the other two sections. Babs is a temporary replacement who is lazy and steals from the store. With the help of the costumes, Susie finally fires her, but not before Babs comes to the realization that the store is enchanted and out to get her. Maggie does return to help in the store, but it is short lived and her illness eventually leads to her death, which, in turn, leads Susie to sell the store.
The new owners of the store, Peggy and her husband, Honey, have a few of their own adventures with the costume shop. One plot involves the buying out of another costume shop and the addition of all the costumes from that shop to the enchanted one – and, yes, the costumes are all enchanted as well. Peggy also has a grandchild, Isabel, who spends a lot of time in the shop and, because she is 3, she can speak and interact with the costumes. Honey, in an effort to boost the marketing for the shop, brings in a couple of mannequins, but the mannequins don’t have faces, so at night when everything else comes alive, they bumble about and cause a ruckus, eventually leading to a fire – which results in the death of another costume – Hippie. The last plot involves the return of Babs, who now has several daughters/minions who help her steal a bunch of the costumes. With the help of the costumes and Isabel, Peggy and Honey track her down and save the costumes.
Review:
Given the types of books I usually read and review, you’re probably asking why I suddenly decided to pick up a kids’ book. Well, I’ll tell you. The author is the owner of the ballet studio where Debi and I met. Debi danced there for almost 20 years and knew Susan very well. I also came to know her and her husband Bill (Honey) quite well, too. We heard that Susan wrote the book a while back, then Susan was kind enough to send us a copy. Since Debi isn’t a huge reader, I figured I’d give the book a quick read. It’s pretty short and easy reading, so I breezed through it in about an hour.
I have to admit, reading a fictional story by someone you know is a fascinating experience. I can understand why people I know like reading my fiction – it’s pretty apparent what the sources are for a lot of things in the stories. Let me just give a few examples: Susie may not be Susan, the author, but I’m guessing she is. Liz is the shortened name of one of her granddaughters, Elizabeth, who is also the oldest child of her daughter, Michelle, who was the ballet instructor at the studio where Debi and I danced. Isabel is Michelle’s second daughter; ergo, another actual granddaughter. Rickey is the name of one of Susan’s grandchildren from a different daughter. Peggy is pretty clearly Susan. Honey, Peggy’s nickname for her husband, is very obviously Bill Wright, Susan’s real-life husband. Bill’s actually a pretty cool guy, but he does like to complain about things, as does his character in the book (sorry, Bill, you’re wife wrote it ;). The real life connections are actually very interesting when you are an insider. Here are a couple more connections. The book talks about costumes coming to life to do several types of dancing, including ballet, ballroom, country/western, and swing dancing. Susan and Bill also own and run several dance studios where they hold weekly ballroom, swing, and country dances. The pageant Jennifer wins is called “Ms. Murrayville;” the actual pageant is called “Ms. Murray,” as the name of the city where the costume shop is located is Murray (Debi competed in that competition by the way ;). The costume shop is on State Street in both the book and real life. Susan has a daughter (or son, I forget which) who lives in Florida with two kids whose names start with M – they are mentioned in the book. And, finally, Peggy, in talking about the costume catalog in the store, mentions that the previous owner, Susie, just used local high school kids as models and took the pictures herself. Well, Susan actually did that – and Debi was one of the models. I’ve probably bored everyone with this, but it was actually very fun for me to read the book and see all of the connections.
The book seems to have been written with several goals in mind. First, I think it actually mentions everyone of Bill and Susan’s grandkids, which must have made them all ecstatic. Second, I think Susan probably told some of these stories to her grandkids, which may have been the origins of the book. Third, the book has some pretty clear messages/lessons for kids, including valuing the role of police in society (they come to the shop after a burglary) and denigrating theft. Finally, I think the book is intended to be a story that parents can read to their kids. I say this because the book is filled with subtle jokes that only adults are likely to get, but the jokes are only a small part of the bigger story, which is clearly geared toward kids. For instance, in the costume shop are a variety of masks, including a number of masks of Presidents of the U.S. Wittily intertwined with the story are quips and one-liners that are clearly associated with Presidents, like, “Ask not what your costume can do for you… ask what you can do for your costume” (p. 64) and “That depends on what the meaning of is, is” (p. 67). Clearly, Susan is well-acquainted with the presidents (she shows a particular fondness for Bill Clinton and Monica Lewinski affair jokes). Kids are not going to get these jokes, but I found them quite funny.
Despite being an entertaining read, the book has some drawbacks, problems that would not have made their way into the book if a careful editor had given it a thorough reading prior to its publication (I believe it was self-published). For instance, the grammar is occasionally sloppy and poorly constructed, e.g., “I had one unforgettable day. However, I’ll never forget this day” (p. 35). The stories, while they do kind of make sense in the end, are oddly divided and don’t follow the traditional three act structure of stories (introduction of conflict, work towards resolution, and resolution). As it is written now, the book doesn’t flow very well. Cleaning up the grammar, reorganizing the stories around a central plot, and clearly dividing the book into coherent chapters would make this a much better book.
Problems aside, this is an entertaining book that, if read to children by their parents, would probably result in both being entertained. I think the people who will find this book the most entertaining are those who are familiar with The Ballet Centre or The Costume Shop in Murray, UT as the book is an intriguing peak inside the mind of one of the owners. But even if you don’t know Susan Wright you are likely to enjoy this creative book, its witty characters, and its thematic but engaging plots.