Local businesswoman Jillian T. Kaplan has devised a novel contest idea to promote her newly published kids’ book, What Mess? The picture book features illustrations by Kaitlyn E. Barr — a UVM junior who works at Kaplan’s craft company Kalax Creations — and is drolly narrated from the perspective of a little girl who wonders, in vain, why Mom considers her room a pigsty. (“Mommy can’t mean my bed, which has my four favorite pillows, three blankets and forty-seven stuffed animals on it. I need all those things to be comfy...”) The reader who proposes the best name for the currently nameless protagonist will have his or her likeness featured in the sequel, Kaplan says. Vote at whatmessbook.blogspot.com.