Norman the Slug with the Silly Shell

September 15, 2017
A slug with shell envy finds a worthy surrogate--and then something even better.With a fine disregard for logic, internal or otherwise, Hendra sends her bright orange slug out to find a shell so that he can join the smiling snails in their play. After failed experiments with a tennis ball, an apple, and an alarm clock tied on his back (neat tricks, considering his total lack of limbs), he straps himself beneath a discarded doughnut. This draws a bird ("Quick, slither for your lives," counterintuitively cry the snails to one another) that carries Norman off. Sliming himself free of the doughnut (which the bird also drops, for some reason) in midair, Norman falls onto a clothesline. The surprisingly nonharrowing experience has made him eager now to take to the air, so he somehow turns a pair of underpants into a stiff glider. Off he flies with a "Ta-da!" to leave readers admiring his resourcefulness and also, more than likely, disoriented by the story's arbitrary swerves. The common desire to fit in gets a silly, if not particularly clever or well-knit, take. (Picture book. 5-7)

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October 2, 2017
As a slug, Norman admires the patterned shells on snails’ backs. And who can blame him? In Hendra’s vivid illustrations, their shells are as bright and enticing as peppermint candies. But the snails have no interest in Norman. When he inadvertently ruins a game they are playing, one snail sniffs, “This only works if you’ve got a shell.” Norman takes this as a challenge and tries on a variety of potential shells: a tennis ball proves “too bouncy,” an alarm clock is “too noisy,” and a worm-infested apple is “already taken.” Norman gets the snails’ seal of approval after he straps a pink-frosted doughnut with sprinkles to his back (“Ta-da! A shell!”)—until a bird swoops down and snatches the doughnut, with Norman still attached. Though Norman has been unhappy with his identity throughout the book, he uses his innate slug talent to escape: “He made slime—lots and lots of it!” Don’t look for just-be-yourself messages here: Hendra (Dragon Jelly) ends with a goofy scene that indicates that Norman isn’t done trying out life as other creatures. Ages 4–8.

December 15, 2017
Preschool-G Norman, a big orange slug, thinks that snails are amazing, but they ostracize him due to his lack of a shell, so he goes in search of one. After several false tries, he stumbles on a pink-frosted doughnut with sprinkles and decides it's a perfect fit. The snails agree. Unfortunately, Norman attracts the attention of a predatory bird that carries him and his doughnut into the sky, only to drop them when Norman releases his slime. Norman lands draped over a clothesline, now mesmerized by the desire to fly on his own. With the flip of a page, Norman is flying high with wings fashioned out of purple underwear from the clothesline. The textbrief, simple, and compellingmanages to include a good dose of alliterationthe slugs, snails, and shells slime, slither, and slother. But the wow factor comes from the lush illustrations featuring copious amounts of deep purple agreeably balanced with other vivid colors. The cover is awash in pinks, purples, oranges, sparkles, and sprinkles. Doughnuts and slugs never looked so good.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2017, American Library Association.)