today’s children storybook summary is
Tommy Two-Toes
by Dayton and Darci Mason
Illustrator: Argha Mondal
Storyline: Our character is a sloth called Tommy Two-Toes, that, for the majority of time, lives up on the tree tops.Perch up on the branches, he has gotten into the habit of making kin observation about the world below. One thing he finds out is what’s on his friends menu. And he sees that some of his friends dinner is much different then his. Because, you see, Tommy the sloth is vegetarian and majority of his friends are not.
On Monday, our hero casually notices that a gator in the river below swallowed a fish. While not his dish, the sloth doesn’t criticize the gator. On Tuesday, he meets his friend Brian, the lizard, who’s meal consists mostly of bugs. While not judging him for his choice of food, Tommy shows him that bugs have family and friends, just like everybody else.
On Wednesday, he gets to offer his “greens” to a sick bird who fed on earthworms and, consequentially, became squirmy and wiggly. But on Thursday, Tommy had the surprise to meet a Panda who is, also, a vegetarian.
By Friday, the sloth had decided to throw a party and serve only food that “grows in the earth” so that all the animals, birds or other beings from the natural world enjoy the benefits of going “green”, as in vegetarian. Because “eating another is downright rude”, as the book says.
The party ends with a little song that you can sing along with your kids. I find this to be a novelty addition to the book which can be downloaded at the Green Bamboo Publishing website.
While the message of the book is that eating meat (animal, fish, or non-vertebrates) is wrong, we are not provided with all the reasons as why that might be, the story mostly emphasizing compassion towards the beings of our natural world.
Characters: Tommy Two-Toes, a vegetarian sloth; Brad, a lizard who likes to eat bugs, a bird, a Panda, a gator.
Illustration: Agha Mondal, the illustrator of this book, has created bright and rich visuals, with catchy colors and firm strokes. They do not overwhelm the reader with details but stick to the essentials, making it easier to follow the plot. The illustrations fill the pages from one end to another and the text flows over the design so that both text and picture complement each other.
Recommended Age: 5 to 8
Reading Time: 3″
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