Paul Schmid, known for his sweet and cute characters, brings a new undersea creation to toddlers: Melvin, a lilac balloon of an octopus. Melvin zips away from his big, pink mama, looking for adventure. He travels into a pale yellow spread, looking for “a place for just me.” But each place he finds isn’t quite right. He encounters schools of sea creatures, a scary shark, a pirate ship, and, finally, tired of his adventures, finds the perfect place in his mother’s arms.
The art is all in pastels and the storyline is suggested, not explicit. So when Melvin encounters a school of silvery fish, all swimming together, he says “A place where I can be myself!” but the reader and/or listener will need to intuit the problem with this place, that the fish are all alike. Some comments are more vague, as when he drifts down an undersea slope, by a wrecked pirate ship, thinking “It might take a while…”
The pale colors and generic text are not ideal for the average board book audience, but caregivers will be attracted by the classic “Runaway Bunny” message and if one sets aside the text as written, it would work well in a storytime, finding and counting the different sea creatures.
Verdict: A fun, additional purchase for board book collections, especially where Schmid’s work is popular or you have a lot of ocean creature fans.
ISBN: 9781524865146; Published October 2021 by Andrews McMeel; Review copy provided by publisher; Donated to the library
No comments:
Post a Comment