ONCE UPON A TIMES

Hilfiker presents a collection of four illustrated stories with clear morals for young children.

In the opening tale, “Grizzlies Win,” an anthropomorphic bear named Tobey, who lives in the Everglades, very much wants to be liked at school. However, every attempt he makes to ingratiate himself to others—playing sports, wearing flashy clothing, clowning around in class—leaves him more ostracized. He turns to an elderly neighbor for advice, and on her recommendation, he acts naturally instead of trying to play a part, and he ends up helping his classmates achieve victory in their annual competition against a rival school of panthers. “What If the Stars Could Speak?” is a meditation on history and nature by a young boy who goes out onto the deck one night at a lakeside cabin. “The Fable of Two Trees” tells the story of Cesar and Rudy, who sprout from seeds at the same time but choose different ways of growing: Cesar wants to be taller than all other trees, while Rudy spreads out his branches to capture as much sunlight as possible. Cesar’s glory-seeking becomes his downfall, and Rudy is left feeling bereft rather than triumphant. “How Pelicans Got a Pouch” explains a natural phenomenon through a tale of a fight between two brothers to rule an ancient kingdom. When the dying king appoints his younger son, Kindehar, as his heir, older son Callister rebels by stealing a sacred chalice that serves as a vessel for the kingdom’s continuity. Kindehar, with divine and other assistance, saves the kingdom.

The four stories in this book are charming and are likely to appeal to adults looking to share positive messages with children. The works are explicit in their didactic messaging (“All you really need to be is what you are. That’s the most important lesson in the world”), and readers will have no trouble discerning each story’s lesson as they read along. However, the stories are engaging enough that they don’t feel overly focused on their messages. They contain some elegant phrases and moments of insight along the way (“If there were a hundred kids looking at the moon from this side of the lake, would there be a hundred different paths of moonlight?” one character wonders at one point), and there are some richly drawn characters who help to bring the narratives to vivid life. The author also offers some intriguing explorations of the human tendency to place oneself at the core of every story, as Cesar explicitly points out in “The Fable of Two Trees.” The well-organized tales increase in length and conceptual complexity as the book goes on. Lim's illustrations, with their muted color palette and watercolorlike style, add plenty of visual interest and capture the characters effectively. The short lengths of the individual stories and the brevity of the book as a whole make it suitable for reading aloud, and the morals will provide plenty of opportunities for further discussion.

A set of message-driven but compelling read-aloud tales.