The only thing wrong with Helen Ketteman's new picture book, The Three Little Gators, is that unless you live in Florida, you won't be able to hear Helen read it. I certainly can't do justice to this rollicking read-aloud with my plain old Pacific Northwest voice. No sirree: this book needs a gal from south. So please, Mr. Whitman: get this out on CD soon, with Helen reading it. You'll sell more copies than skeeters on a swamp.
One of the things I love about this retelling is that our heroes are three alligators, not creatures one normally worries about. But these are little gators, off to start lives of their own. And they live in the same neighborhood as Big-Bottomed Boar who enjoys nothing better than a bit of gator gumbo. Or grilled gator. Or gator gratinee. So they decide to build houses. One out of sand, one out of sticks and one out of stone. You can guess what happens next! You and the children you're reading to will laugh out loud at this story and kindergartners will get a complete hoot out of the slightly naughty phrase, "big-bottomed."
This is a big-hearted and big-laugh-inducing picture book, thanks to the delicious words written by Helen and to the hysterical pictures drawn by Will Terry.
No comments:
Post a Comment