Starla Jean: Which came first? The chicken or the friendship?

Starla Jean by Elana K. Arnold
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

My kids thought this book was great; I thought it was meh. A little girl goes to the park with her dad and comes home with a chicken. I totally sympathized with the dad who stupidly said she could keep it if she could catch it, never imagining she'd actually catch it. I also sympathized with the mom who did not want a chicken inside the house, though I would have been a LOT more forceful about keeping it outside and away from my dining room table.

It was OK. Silly enough to make my kids laugh; ridiculous enough to make me roll my eyes. (Putting a diaper on a chicken??)

Oh--one thing I didn't understand was that at the end of the book there were some "chicken facts," including that chickens can do basic addition, with an illustration showing a chicken at a chalkboard adding 1+2=3. What?? How is this a chicken fact? If chickens have somehow been proven to be able to add, then the illustration should explain this, not be wildly impossible. That...just...NO.

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Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem

Bringing Back the Wolves: How a Predator Restored an Ecosystem by Jude Isabella
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

A lovely picture book for older kids (or adults) about the effects of reintroducing wolves into Yellowstone National Park, an ecosystem devastated by the systematic killing of apex predators in the late 1800s. There were a few spots where I felt like a little additional content would have been helpful, or at least don’t leave me hanging and searching for where the story thread picks back up. But overall an excellent book for anyone who wants to know more about the critical and sometimes surprising effects keystone species like wolves have on their environments.

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Wolfie the Bunny

Wolfie the Bunny by Ame Dyckman
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This is not your usual new-baby-jealousy book, as Dot the bunny has reason to be wary of her new brother the wolf, because, you know, wolves eat bunnies! But this wolf loves his big sister, and when put to the test, Dot gets fierce in her defense of her (big) little brother. Sweet and funny!

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Delivery Bear

Delivery Bear by Laura Gehl
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I have mixed feelings about this one. On the surface, it's a super cute story of a bear who's always wanted to deliver things for a living, and one day he gets the chance to do his dream job. Except, because he's a bear and not a bunny, he has to talk the manager into giving him a chance, and then he ends up scaring the customers because, you know, he's a big bear. He tries to make himself look more like a bunny so he won't scare people, but it doesn't work, and then finally he remembers to be proud of who he is and instead starts singing a song of his own creation to let the other animals know he means them no harm. This works, and he succeeds.

In the context of the animal world, it's delightful and makes perfect sense. He's a big bear, and the other animals would normally be prey or at least in danger, so their fear is completely logical. He does what's necessary to solve that situation.

However. When you look at the allegorical overtones, that's when things get icky. I am unsettled by the inherent prejudice of the manager telling Zogby that he doesn't "have the Fluffy Tail Cookies look." I am unsettled by the concept of Zogby trying to change himself in order to fit in or make others accept him, although we all do this to a certain extent. It makes me think of African Americans having to "act white" in order to seem less threatening to the white people in charge.

I do appreciate the message of being who you are because who you are is inherently special, though. And it's good that Zogby does break down the employment barriers, thanks to customers calling to praise him.

My daughter picked this book out from the library, and we read it once or twice. The overtones that unsettled me went right over my daughter's head, which is good. I'm not sure I'd want to keep reading it to her without also having a conversation about these troubling issues, however, and she's still a little too young to really comprehend, so this book is going back to the library.

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