Author: Nicholas Oldland
Publisher: Kids Can Press
Rating: WORTHY!
DISCLOSURE: Unlike the majority of reviews in this blog, I've neither bought this book nor borrowed it from the library. This is a "galley" copy ebook, supplied by Net Galley. I'm not receiving (nor will I expect to receive or accept) remuneration for this review. The chance to read a new book is often reward aplenty!
It's Kids Can Press day today on my blog, and I have two reviews of cool books both from the same publisher, and both aimed at young children. The first of these is Walk on the Wild Side, a short and simple book for young children which relates the story of the bear, the beaver, and the moose, who one day decide to hike up a nearby - well, not so nearby - mountain.
Things seem to be moving along just fine until the eager beaver has the bright idea of turning it into a contest. So begins the race down the valley, across the canyon, over the river, and up the mountain. That's when trouble begins. The mountain isn't exactly the safest place to be running around on, and soon enough an errant boulder comes rolling down the hillside, and Moose ends up hanging from a tree, followed quickly by bear, who tries to save moose and fails. Now they're both hanging from the tree.
I love the picture that looks like like it's a re-creation of the well-known Grant Wood's (no relation!) American Gothic, and the picture of all three of them marching in lock-step on their mission. I have no idea what's with the pink bird. It's never mentioned. Mysterious, huh? I think it's a CIA operative.
Curiously enough, it's also a tree that saves the dangling pair, in the capable hands of a busy beaver. It soon becomes clear that despite what American society worships as a god, competition isn't all it's cracked-up to be. Much more useful is cooperation as our three musky tearaways discover! Of course, women have known this for years, but it's a concept which men still seem to struggle to internalize. You don't get ahead by crushing your competition and devil take the hindmost. You get ahead by everyone helping everyone else to get a leg up.
This book is an important reminder of that fact, and it tells a funny, interesting, and entertain story in bright colors evocative of the natural world in which these animals live. I recommend this book, and if you like this one, there are several other featuring the same characters.
