LOONY LITTLE

“Chicken Little” for the environmentally aware.

When Loony Little feels a drop of water hit the top of her head, she wails, “The polar ice cap is melting! I must go tell the Polar Bear Queen!” She meets a dovekie, a puffin, and an arctic hare along the way, several commenting about the effect: “the sea will rise, and my den might flood!” But when the group meets Sealy Sally, they rethink meeting the Polar Bear Queen, who recently ate Sealy Sally’s cousin. Foxy Loxy offers to safely escort them, but Loony Little puts paid to his nefarious plan when she stumbles across the sign pointing to his den. A well-aimed piece of ice convinces Foxy Loxy the group is right, and he takes the news to the Polar Bear Queen…who promptly solves a more immediately pressing need than a melting ice cap. The four friends head off across the ice dolefully wondering what they can do. “It’s up to us to find out,” says Loony Little. “All of us.” Backmatter explains climate change and the greenhouse effect, gives some ideas for ways kids can help—though many are either educational/research-based or work-intensive (grow a garden, plant trees)—and provides additional info about each of the animals. The textured paintings don’t always match this information, often showing the loon on solid surfaces standing upright as a goose would, which is physically impossible.

Not the most satisfying, accurate, or entertaining entrée to climate change.