Ol' Mama Squirrel
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
Caldecott Honor winner David Ezra Stein’s lively tale is a fantastic read-aloud, and feisty Mama Squirrel will have fierce mamas everywhere applauding!
Ol’ Mama Squirrel has raised lots of babies, and she knows just how to protect them. Whenever trouble comes nosing around, she springs into action with a determined “Chook, chook, chook!” and scares trouble away. Her bravery is put to the test, however, when a really big threat wanders into town and onto her tree. But no matter what, Mama’s not about to back down!
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
As he did in Interrupting Chicken and Pouch!, Stein again shows his skill at finding laughs in commonplace situations. Ol' Mama Squirrel keeps her squirrel children safe from a variety of intruders (cats, owls, repairmen) with a combination of noise, bluff, and bloody-minded indignation. When a dog threatens, she "clattered in the high branches. chook chook chook! She chattered in the low branches. chook chook chook! She scrabbled right side up and upside down while she scolded that dog." Stein's all-too-real vignettes of the angry squirrel's arched eyebrows and waving fists are funny all by themselves, and when a sneering grizzly bear shows up and the suspense builds, Ol' Mama Squirrel doesn't flinch. The book gallops along without pausing for breath, and there's something deeply gratifying about the story of a mother whose perfect confidence assures that her children will always be safe. Yet Stein makes it possible to sympathize with the victims, too: "They must put crazy powder in the nuts around here!" says the dog she's chased off. A rousing and rowdy readaloud. Ages 3 5.
