Two-time Caldecott Honor artist Laura Vaccaro Seeger digs deeply into the emotional lives of youngest children with a picture book that acknowledges cruelty's vicious cycle.
A large gray bull yells "GO AWAY!" at a smaller brown bull. Bold black type and all capital letters indicate the gray bull's ferocity, while the brown bull's woeful eyes betray his hurt feelings. Next, a rabbit, hen and turtle stand together as the rabbit asks, "Wanna play?" With a turn of the page, the brown bull has grown in size, and he yells, "NO!" The rabbit scampers off, and the hen's and turtle's eyes grow wide in surprise. He scares them off, too, one at a time. "CHICKEN!" he says. "SLOW POKE!"
Seeger features characters in a thick black outline and solid colors to keep the focus on the animals' body language and facial expressions. A ghosted gray split-rail fence provides the gauge for the brown bull's growing physique and also underscores the sense of the animals being literally penned in by the bull's energy. Each time the brown bull makes fun of the farm creatures, he puffs up ever larger. But when a goat calls his bluff ("BULLY!"), his ego deflates. He apologizes. The turtle, who'd been poised to retreat, turns around. The constraining fence now reveals an opening, and the three head off together.
Seeger acknowledges that bullying can start early in childhood and shows that a little kindness can go a long way to reverse its effects. --Jennifer M. Brown