Review by Booklist Review
It's a beautiful day in the forest, but each animal has a problem. Squirrel dangles helplessly from an oak limb. Bird gets its beak stuck in a tree trunk. Snake has tied itself into a knot, and Tortoise has tumbled from a rock and landed upside down. Fox moans about his stomach ache, while from his belly, Mousey's voice wails about being stuck in a "damp, dark, smelly place" and hollers "GET ME OUT!" Squirrel tells the animals to solve each other's predicaments. Together, they rescue Squirrel, who tickles Fox's nose with his tail. When Fox sneezes, Mousey shoots from his mouth, grateful to be free. Fox apologizes and vows not to eat his friends again. Written in rhythmic, rhyming verse from various animals' points of view, the text reads aloud effectively and concludes by summing up the story's theme, "helping one another can make a bad day great!" The artwork, created using ink, pencil, paint, and digital elements, offers some idyllic forest scenes along with appealing close-ups of the animal characters. An engaging picture book.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
A variety of forest critters experience misfortune. A squirrel is at a loss: "Oh no--I climbed up high / to get this yummy nut. / And now I'm here, though it appears / I am completely stuck!" A snake has twisted itself into a knot; a tortoise has flipped onto its shell; a woodpecker's beak is stuck in a tree trunk; a mouse is trapped in a fox's stomach; and the fox has a bellyache. The squirrel realizes that if they all help one another, they can free the mouse from the fox's belly. The illustrations show the various animals grappling with their predicaments then solving them by working together. "If I just turn myself around / and use this tail I've got, / the bird can fly down from the tree… / and loosen up Snake's knot," says the squirrel, for example. Written in rhyming verse, the book conveys an important message in an engaging way: If we all work together and help one another, we can accomplish things we could not do alone. The ink, pencil, and paint illustrations incorporate lots of textures, color variations, and small details (like insect friends on multiple pages) that will hold young readers' interest, inviting them to return to the story again and again. (This book was reviewed digitally.) An easily digestible lesson in teamwork with animal appeal. (Picture book. 4-7) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
