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Bound With These Titles
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Summary
Summary
Can you keep the secret?
Yes?
Can you really?
But what if it is the most exciting,
the very best,
the most
delicious secret
that has ever
been whispered
in
your
ear?
Reviews (4)
School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Mr. Snail has a secret. His mouse friend promises not to tell, and Mr. Snail whispers it into his ear. The mouse heads straight for the beetle and "squeaks" the secret to it. The beetle "pinches" it to the turtle who "grumbles" it to the fish who "swishes" it to the frog. And so, the secret is passed among several animals and insects until the chipmunk finally "chatters" it to the spider who "clicks" it to Miss Snail. She turns around and whispers to Mr. Snail, "I love you, too!" This story is simple but sweet. George's collages combine natural materials such as flowers and twigs with watercolor cutouts for the creatures. The artwork has an eye-catching, three-dimensional effect. While some of the hues are rather dark, this delightful tale will work well in storytimes and for one-on-one sharing. Children will enjoy identifying the animals and trying to guess Mr. Snail's big secret.-Roxanne Burg, Orange County Public Library, CA (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
Spoiler alert: the secret is Mr. Snail's love for a fetching lady gastropod-a confidence that is passed along a lengthy chain of critters until it reaches its intended destination (and she responds in kind). But the contents of the conveyed message are not the main attraction here. Rather, it's George's (Pick, Pull, Snap!) large-scale collage spreads, which combine 3-D naturalistic elements (flowers, tree bark, rocks) with cutouts of lissome and brilliantly colored animal portraits. A bold dotted line runs through each illustration, connecting one teller to the next, and youngsters will likely enjoy tracing this often playfully circuitous route. A vividly variegated frog hops over a line-up of flowers before telling the secret to a rakish, yellow-spotted salamander; a worm winds through an elaborate earth tunnel before surfacing to spread the word to a startlingly lifelike chickadee. George attempts to make the one line of text that runs along the bottom of the pages as evocative as her pictures, with varying degrees of success (it doesn't quite jibe, for instance, that the caterpillar "tickled" the secret to the worm). But that's a small matter, given the pictures' gleeful, genial splendor. Ages 3-up. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Horn Book Review
Mr. Snail asks the mouse, ""Can you keep a secret?"" When the mouse agrees, the secret is shared over and over again from mouse to beetle, beetle to turtle, etc., with all the garden creatures. There is no surprise when the secret comes full circle. The slight text operates as a vehicle to showcase the unusual art created with watercolors and a variety of materials. (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. All rights reserved.
Kirkus Review
Smoothly combining images of rocks, leaves, flowers, and other natural items with painted figures in bright, realistic, low-relief digital collages, George takes her audience to ground level for a game of pass-the-secret. What Mr. Snail tells mouse is immediately passed on to a beetle, who informs the turtle, thus beginning a long chain of gossip that ends at Miss Snail. The secret, revealed by Miss Snail's answer, is "I love Miss Snail," and unlike the usual result of "Telephone," it plainly isn't garbled at all on its circuitous route. George keeps her text to a minimum, and uses a different verb for each exchange: "The moth shook it to the bee, / who buzzed it to the caterpillar. / The caterpillar / tickled it to the worm. / The worm / hummed it to the chickadee." Reminiscent of A Kiss for Little Bear, this offers unusual measures of verbal and visual delights. (Picture book. 5-7) Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
