The girl thought it was unusual to
find a robot in the forest, but it's not
so unusual when you're in ...
What kind of book is this?
Come see.
... the GLEEP GLORK FOREST
OF MARS!"
Well, I thought it was going to be an alphabet book ... and a pretty ordinary one at that. It starts with a pair of letter As (one upper-case and one lower-case) sitting above a group of apples. Yep! Wait a minute! Before B becomes a bee, the scene changes to the visual of a little girl in a red cape. Do you remember her?
The letter A and one of the apples is ready for the change, following Red Riding Hood and her basket full of goodies into the nearby woods. Dialogue between A and the young girl is telling and investigative. Upon meeting a robot, she wonders what kind of book they have encountered now. Can you guess?
The three (including the robot) then escape an unknown creature into the kind of book kindergarten children like to hear. So, it goes. Just when they think they have stumbled into the kind of book they were expecting, there's another twist or halt in the action. The speech bubbles are funny, and speak directly to the variety in genre that books provide for readers.
"Enough! Get out! All of you!
This is an animals-at-school book!
There are no pirates, no bananas,
no robots, no superheroes,
no talking letters, and no detectives!
None of you belong here!"
Obviously, the premise for this book is unusual; it is also entertaining. The cartoon characters fill the pages with witty dialogue, engaging antics, and slapstick adventure. Settings constantly change, new characters emerge, individual personalities vie for prominence, and all want the book to be about them.
In the end, a lesson is learned.
"Don't you realize what this means?
We're all supposed to be here!
Anybody can belong in a book like this!
Anybody!
The mystery was solved."
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