Hardie Gramatky - Little Toot

When I saw Little Toot on a list of recommended books for second graders I brought it home from the library. I remember watching the movie/short cartoon of it when I was a kid so I knew the basic story and was looking forward to reading it with my son. It ended up being due at the library before we had a chance to read it together, so I read it real quick the day before it was due.

The book does have a lot of pages, almost 100, but every other page is an illustration and the pages with text sometimes just have one sentence and other times have up to two short paragraphs. The AR BL is 4.7 and it is recommended for grade K-3. Reading this book to myself it took me 6 minutes. I'd imagine reading aloud to a child would involve more looking at the illustrations, but would still probably be under 10 minutes.

The story is about a little tug boat whose father and grandfather are famous tug boats who do an amazing job, but Little Toot is sort of lazy and annoying, he just likes to make black smoke balls. But when he tries to change his impression to others and help he is turned down. The big ships know his lack and initiative and how he goofs off, they don't want him to tug them. In his frustration he wanders off and finds himself in some rough waters and then a storm. He notices a familiar ship that is stranded on some rocks. Now is his chance!

I liked how the story shows that you really can get a reputation and it's sometimes hard to break. The author, Hardie Gramatky, does a good job of making a bunch of boats seem like people with personalities. Written in 1939 this book still has lasting power. Tug boats may not be used quite as much these days, but the concepts of proving oneself and doing the right thing when the opportunity arises are universal and timeless. I definitely recommend this book. The illustrations don't use a lot of color, but it's easy enough to tell what is going on in each scene and the words tell quite the adventure for Little Toot.

Recommend this product? Yes