artemis8's Full Review: Dianna Hutts Aston - Loony Little
Most people know Chicken Little who thinks the sky is falling. Loony Little things the polar ice cap is melting when a big drop of water falls on her head. She decides she needs to tell Polar Bear Queen about this dilemna.
Along the way she meets Dovekie Lovekie, Puffin Muffin, Harey Clarey, Sealy Sally, and Foxy Loxy. Loony convinces most of them to join her, but Foxy thinks she will just lead them to dinner. They do escape and right before they get to Polar Bear Queen they see her eat Foxy Loxy when Foxy tells her about the melting before the birds and hare get there. So they can't tell her, she doesn't care and will just eat them, they need to tell someone who will care. But Loony asks "who?" as the last sentence of the story.
Obviously the intent is for young readers to decide they care and want to do something about the melting polar ice cap. But if you follow the thinking of Chicken Little we know it wasn't really the polar ice cap melting, so why waste our time. It was probably a drop of rain or maybe a bird flew overhead and pooped on her and she thought it was water. I mean the story doesn't really give the impression that there is any truth to Loony Little's claim.
At the end of the book is information about studies done on the raising temperature of the Earth, with an emphasis on continual studying of the changes. It also has resources for more information. And it has two pages of information and facts on the animals in the story.
I liked that it was a twist on the original story, but I honestly didn't like the twist that much. Each animal has a cheesy way of showing surprise with things like "goodness glaciers" and "leaping lemmings". But it does have realistic concerns about the ice cap melting like "will my den be flooded?" There are definitely some elements of education but I think the author, Dianna Hutts Aston, tries to hard to make it sort of catchy and maybe she is trying to modernness as well. I can't quite tell. But overall I was not overly impressed with the story.
The illustrations are by Kelly Murphy and created using acrylic, watercolor and gel medium on board. There is a definitely blue-green coloring to the story, mostly from the water and the sky. There is plenty of ice as well. The animal markings look pretty accurate, although there are definite facial expressions to the animals. Like the fox looks quite scared at one point. I do like the mood that the illustrations create.
I'd guess this book is intended for children aged 3-7 years old. There are animals to keep it interesting, nice illustrations, and the somewhat silly animal names. There is something to be learned with the info at the back, but overall I think this book will fail to inspire anyone to action.
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