LITTLE SPIRAL

In an Australian rainforest, a snail with a spiral shell grows, explores, and reproduces.

Simmons describes this process as “almost like magic,” and Shirvington’s allusive paintings extend the mood. At first, all readers will see is the snail’s spiral, but then the body appears, and finally the snail’s sparkly trails. It’s sometimes a challenge to pick out the snail among the lines and swirls. Readers will also find other Australian forest-dwellers, including a blue-tongued lizard, a large dragonfly, and even a brush turkey. The artist’s use of light and dark is intriguing; it seems to suggest that this journey extends over several days and nights. Curiously, but quite beautifully, the snail stands out most noticeably in what the text calls “the low light” of “the dark night.” The poetic text is set in short stanzas directly on the illustrations and makes extensive, but not predictable, use of rhyme and alliteration. It would be a pleasure to read aloud. Though the setting may be unfamiliar to North American readers, the presentation fits well in any sense-of-wonder collection. A similar title from New Zealand, Gay Hay and Margaret Tolland’s Watch Out, Snail! (2017), includes factual aftermatter and makes a good complement. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9.5-by-19-inch double-page spreads viewed at 68.7% of actual size.)

Magic and mystery to encourage appreciation of the natural world.