Little Nelly's Big Book by Pippa Goodhart

Little Nelly's Big Book by Pippa Goodhart, illustrated by Andy Rowland
Bloomsbury

Rating: 5 stars

Little Nelly (the young elephant in this story) and I (the writer typing away at this review) share something: we both believe a lot of what we read. Luckily, I've not had a crisis like Little Nelly. Yet.

Little Nelly opens a book and reads that mice can be gray. Mice have big ears. Mice have skinny tails.

Little Nelly is gray. She has big ears. She has a skinny tail.

Ergo, Little Nelly must be...a mouse?!

After this terrific realization, she pushes through the wall in order to get to the mice den behind it and starts bunking with the mouse family. At first, they are startled. That's pretty reasonable, methinks. But kindly and generously, Granny Mouse leads the way in welcoming big Little Nelly to their small home. They pull the biggest blanket they have over her, comb her hair, give her cheese to eat, play with her.

So Little Nelly went home.

Still, Little Nelly "sometimes felt she was different."

After a while, wise Granny Mouse decides to take Little Nelly to the zoo, where she finds big mice, just like her. Everyone's happy...and a little relieved.

I love this sweet tale of friends being friends regardless of their size or shape or color. I love how the mice are so gentle with Little Nelly's false certainty that she's a mouse. I love how one little mouse picks up the same book Little Nelly did at the beginning and starts wondering if he is, in fact, an elephant. And I really love the last line in this picture book:

"Which just goes to show why books should always have pictures."

Arthur's Tractor: A Fairy Tale with Mechanical Parts by Pippa Goodhart

Arthur's Tractor: A Fairy Tale with Mechanical Parts by Pippa Goodhart

Rating: 2 stars

This is the most random children's books I've ever read. I thought it might be a whimsical mix of boy stuff (tractors) and girl stuff (princesses); as I've got one of each, maybe this was the perfect combo book?  Um, no.

Arthur is a pretty bad farmer who swears (creatively: "Oh, dollups of dung, the blim blam blade has broken!") every time his tractor breaks down. Meanwhile, in the background, without his noticing, a dragon threatens a princess, and a prince intervenes to save her. As the prince saves the princess, the tractor breaks down for the fourth time.  Arthur realizes he needs tools to fix his tractor, so he borrows the prince's sword, the dragon's fire, and the princess's scarf to get the job done.

Then he suddenly realizes there is a fair maiden behind him, and he starts hitting on her.

Without her uttering but three sentences, she accepts his proposal to live on his farm forever, and the prince and the dragon disappear as the sun sets and the new couple sits on Arthur's tractor together.
 
Oh my.