I Am a Tornado
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- $10.99
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
An emotionally unaware tornado carves a path of destruction until it picks up a very empathetic cow in this quirky and sweet picture book about compassion and navigating negative emotions.
Tornado is on a rampage. It tosses cars and knocks over barns. Tornado is also angry, only it doesn’t know that or want to admit it. Then Tornado picks up Cow. Oh, no! Cow would like to be put down. Fortunately, Cow is a good listener. And sometimes Tornado just needs to be heard.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In an entertaining story about the power of compassion, an anthropomorphic tornado finds an empathetic ear—and some emotional support—from an unexpected source. Tornado, a menacing twisty gray funnel of cloud, barrels into a rural scene, flipping farm animals and buildings with abandon and sucking up a russet-brown cow. As Tornado continues shouting and spinning, the cow, now along for the ride, asks, "Tornado, is everything okay?" The back-and-forth that follows might well be a primer for emotional de-escalation. Tornado initially remains on the defensive ("I AM SUPER POWERFUL AND TALL... NOTHING BOTHERS ME"), while the patient cow uses a multi-pronged approach of sincerity, empathy, and occasional meteorological sidebars to understand the spiral's motivation. Slowly, bovine encouragement brings about a transformation for Tornado, who moves from "I'M GONNA GO TOSS 'EM" to "WILL YOU STAY TILL I BLOW AWAY?" Featuring distant mountains and wide-open spaces, cut-paper artwork with a 3D quality slowly shifts with the protagonists' emotional state, showing the cow growing ever larger and expressive Tornado smaller. Beckmeyer (Dear Wild Child) delivers a relatable, conversational power-down that is by turns gentle, funny, and vulnerable. Ages 4–8.
