A Masterly Menagerie
‘What’s Your Favorite Animal?’ by Eric Carle and Friends
Children
ask illustrators to name their favorite animals at virtually every
school and library visit. In some cases, the artists probably come up
with something on the spot and then sketch the rabbit or dromedary in
question. But the urge to answer more thoughtfully must weigh on them
with a little bit of l’esprit de l’escalier.
In
“What’s Your Favorite Animal?,” 14 renowned children’s book
illustrators have a chance to give the question the attention it
deserves, depicting their favorite creatures — from cats to cows — and
explaining, each in his or her own way, why they appeal. Though the book
seems tailored to please the illustrators’ adult fans, there’s enough
charm and variety here to entertain and amuse children too.
Each
artist is given two pages to use as he or she chooses — and they take
very different approaches. Carle, whose painted-tissue-paper collages
give books like “The Very Hungry Caterpillar” and, most recently,
“Friends” an immediately identifiable visual style, starts the book off
with a recollection about his old cat Fiffi, who once hid a string bean
in Carle’s shoe. The illustration is classic Carle: A goofy-looking
black cat with slightly crossed eyes concentrates hard as she considers
how to get a very long string bean into the only slightly longer shoe.
Later,
Tom Lichtenheld, probably best known for illustrating Sherri Duskey
Rinker’s “Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site” and “Steam Train,
Dream Train,” uses his pages for a full-color scene of giraffes with
their heads in the clouds. Rather than writing a prose narrative,
he provides a nifty five-line poem reminiscent of Hilaire Belloc's “The
Bad Child’s Book of Beasts.” “Though meeting a giraffe is rare,/ You
must be prepared not to stare./ They’re easily amused,/ So don’t be
confused./ Just say, ‘Hey, how’s the weather up there?’ ”
Nick
Bruel, whose “Bad Kitty” books are grade-school favorites, allows that
naughty cat to disrupt his initially conventional paean to the octopus.
Jealous of Bruel’s admiration of the sea creature’s intelligence and
unusual mastery of camouflage, Bad Kitty takes over, advocating for his
own favorite animal (meatloaf) and then writing a groveling fan note to
Carle.
There’s
sentiment as well as humor. Chris Raschka (of the Caldecott
Medal-winning “A Ball for Daisy”) paints an enormous snail in loose
whorls of blue and orange, writing: “You may find her (or him) a little
ugly — too squishy. But all her life she works at her craft, adding to
it day by day until, when she dies, she leaves us something of great
beauty.” Perhaps this is a portrait of the artist in disguise?
Lucy
Cousins, Susan Jeffers, Steven Kellogg, Jon Klassen, Peter McCarty,
Peter Sis, Lane Smith, Erin Stead, Rosemary Wells and Mo Willems also
contribute to the volume. Proceeds from its sale benefit the Eric Carle
Museum of Picture Book Art in Amherst, Mass., the only full-scale museum
of children’s book illustration in the United States. It’s a good cause
— and a surprisingly good book.
WHAT’S YOUR FAVORITE ANIMAL?
Written and illustrated by Eric Carle and friends
36 pp. Henry Holt & Company. $17.99. (Picture book; ages 3 and up)