4-8)Ĭontinuing to find inspiration in the work of Virginia Lee Burton, Munro Leaf and other illustrators of the past, Long ( The Little Engine That Could, 2005) offers an aw-shucks friendship tale that features a small but hardworking tractor (“putt puff puttedy chuff”) with a Little Toot–style face and a big-eared young descendant of Ferdinand the bull who gets stuck in deep, gooey mud. The story’s theme of intergenerational kindness is tender, and the text is infused with bits of haiku, wordplay and small lessons that charmingly avoid didacticism. In others, the frail figure of Miss Whitaker dressed in red and purple with a magnificent fluff of white hair carries the most visual weight.
In most of the delicate, finely detailed watercolor paintings the towering figure of Stillwater dominates. The pleasure, as always, is with Muth’s irresistible storytelling, both visual and textual. The plot is predictable: With some friendly attention from Stillwater and the children, Miss Whitaker will turn out to be more vulnerable than nasty and, as a former English teacher, will help Michael overcome his spelling anxiety. This time, the friends tackle two problems: Michael’s nervousness over an impending spelling bee and an irascible elderly neighbor, Miss Whitaker. In this companion to Muth’s Caldecott Honor–winning Zen Shorts (2006), the wise and gentle Giant Panda Stillwater and his young friends are joined by Stillwater’s young nephew Koo.
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