Owl Boy

March 16, 2015
Al’s passion for owls knows no boundaries—his bedroom walls are covered with posters devoted to them, and he tries to emulate them in his own life. “Owls eat mice!” says Al when meatloaf is on the dinner menu. “Owls go out at night!” is his response to his father’s suggestion that he play outdoors. It’s much the same when Al is unwillingly sent to summer camp, but after getting lost in the woods one night, he has the close encounter of the bird kind that he’s been waiting for his whole life. In watercolor cartoons outlined in bold black marker, Schatell (On the First Night of Chanukah) pictures Al balanced on a tree stump, eyes closed in pure bliss as owls swirl around him in the night sky: “It was an owl extravaganza!” It’s a knowingly funny tribute to the intense focus that children can devote to a single subject—which isn’t to say those passions are permanently fixed. All it takes is a bite of one mouse, offered by a kindly owl, to get Al to change his tune. Ages 3–6.

February 1, 2015
Al loves owls. With the passion of a zealot, Al makes decisions about his life based on the habits of his favorite bird. Call a friend? No, owls are solitary birds. Play outside? Not now: Owls are nocturnal. Meatloaf for dinner? Of course not! Owls eat mice. Summer camp is awful until Al gets lost on a hike and meets his favorite bird face to beak. Al explores all things owlish with his feathered host in an "owl extravaganza!" The bah-humbug boy is transformed in his joy, wearing a smile from ear to ear. That is, until he gets hungry. With a slight nod to Sendak, Al has journeyed to the wild and returns to his bedroom with a changed perspective. It is, however, the illustrations that take flight in this funny read-aloud. With strong black lines and simple images, shapes are repeated until Al's entire room is covered with rectangular owl posters. A child with Al's eccentric proclivities may count all the squares on each page or the circle-shaped eyes of all the birds and Al's black glasses. With a cartoonish quality, the drawings confidently capture Al's focus and obsession while sharing his joy. An offbeat tale about following your dreams, no matter where they might lead (though older readers will note the cautionary tale of taking your passions a bit too far). (Picture book. 3-7)

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March 1, 2015

PreS-Gr 1-Al loves owls-his bedroom is papered with pictures of them, he can spout off facts about them, and he even tries to behave like one. This means being solitary, nocturnal, and turning up his nose at his mother's meat loaf with the refrain, "Owls eat mice!" But when his parents, in their efforts to get him to enjoy the things other human boys do, send him off to summer camp, he has a chance to bond with some real owls. It's magical-until he actually tastes a mouse, and suddenly meat loaf and baseball seem far more appealing. Schatell's big-eyed characters, rendered in watercolor and ink, are appealing and fit the humorous tone of the story. VERDICT Parents and kids alike will recognize the obsessive tendencies of childhood, and if Al's sudden passion for baseball is a bit jarring, it is handled with humor.-Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD

Copyright 2015 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

June 1, 2015
Preschool-G After two-year-old Al had a pleasant dream about owls, he became a bit of a fanatic. Now in elementary school, he still responds to every question with an owl-related fact. He even refuses his mother's meatloaf, saying, Owls eat mice! Al hates summer camp, until he gets lost in the woods. That night, his dream comes true when an owl befriends him. He is blissful, and the night is magical, until the bird attempts to feed him a mouse. Back at home, Al has another dream and shifts his focus to a new passion: baseball. The story is written with economy and wit. Brightened with watercolor washes, Schatell's expressive marker-pen drawings magnify the story's humor. With his big round glasses, Al looks a bit owl-like, a likeness used to good advantage in the eye-catching jacket art. The story's climactic moment comes in a memorable double-page close-up showing Al's face with a mouse's tail dangling from his mouth, accompanied by a single word ( YUCK ) in large letters. It's a comical showstopper in an appealing picture book.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)