Carol Talley

Gumbo Goes Downtown is a story about a dog named Gumbo who goes on an adventure in New Orleans. Gumbo feels that he is a nobody and leaves his home to find himself. He walks down the streetcar tracks and sees so many things he has never seen before. He meets some new friends along the way and learns about himself. Gumbo's owner is sad that he has left home and puts up signs to find him. Gumbo returns home because he discovers that Gus is his family. This story allows children to understand that a home is a place we make for ourselves and it is where we are loved and needed. I found this story to be very wordy and could've been shorter to convey the same message. It was interesting to see the different aspects of New Orleans depicted and where Gumbo visited.… (mehr)

Piccolo was a carefree cat-about-town - a well-known tom on the canals of Venice, with a strong sense of adventure, a few close friends, and a pleasant routine of his own. Then one day, after encountering two abandoned kittens, and, in a moment of tenderness, singing them a sweet song from his long-ago youth, Piccolo finds himself embarking on the greatest adventure of his life. For these two feline waifs, playful and very persistent, have decided that Piccolo will be their new papa, and nothing seems to dissuade them. Will Piccolo succeed in ridding himself of these two ragtags, or will he accept his new role as a father...?

Papa Piccolo is simply an adorable book, and I thank my friend Kathryn for alerting me to it! If you have any fondness for cats at all (and I have more than a little, myself), you will be immediately won over by Marco and Polo, and by Papa Piccolo! I enjoyed the heartwarming story, loved the Venetian setting, and appreciated that the didactic purpose - to reinforce the idea that men too can be nurturing parental figures - never overwhelmed the narrative. The artwork by Itoko Maeno - whose illustrations appear in the beautiful picture-book Minou, also about cats - is delightful, capturing the expressions of each feline perfectly!… (mehr)