Sigh.
I feel like I should like Rachel Bright’s 2017 picture book The Squirrels Who Squabbled more than I do.
Jim Field’s illustrations are colorful and engaging: they have the big eyes, exaggerated facial expressions, and elastic limbs of the animals in Ice Age. Layout is strong: some pages have four distinct (but related) panels, communicating story and change well. Other images spill across two pages, slowing the story and underscoring the importance of the event.
The core story has a nice focus: it is fall, and two squirrels fight over the last pine cone available. A cold wind puts pressure on them, as they prepare for winter. There is exaggeration, drama, conflict, and a lesson, all told in rhyme.
So…why was my response just “Meh”?
I think it was that verse seemed forced at times (in word choice and word order), but more, the lesson seemed force. One of the squirrels, Plan-Ahead Bruce, seems like a simple glutton, even a hoarder. As he himself says about food, “I simply MUST have it!” His pile of stored food dwarfs him. He doesn’t need the pine cone, while Spontaneous Cyril has stored literally no food. He’s not just not ready for winter. He’s not ready for that afternoon. To get to a message of easy sharing as equals….huh?
Maybe I’m wrong, and you’ll like it, but while I liked the images, the story didn’t do it for me.
