Snail & Worm Again

February 15, 2017
Three funny stories about two fast friends.Snail and Worm return in a second picture book about their friendship in this follow-up to Snail & Worm (2016). In the three short stories, they first fret over Snail's new wings (a feather that fell onto its shell); then they gaze in wonder at what they think is a mirror with their reflections (it's a penny with Lincoln's profile); and finally, Worm assures Snail that its shell is perfectly fine just the way it is. While some of the humor is predicated on readers knowing more than the characters do, the effect isn't mean-spirited. The friends' banter is light and humorous, and their foibles and misunderstandings will provoke laughter as surely as the expressive, multimedia cartoon illustrations will. Snail's eyestalks, in particular, work overtime to convey emotion. The text is conveyed entirely in dialogue, printed in color-coded type to distinguish the speaker; Snail's is brown, while Worm's is lavender. This device occasionally varies when the type is set against a dark color. Printing it in white renders it legible, but readers dependent on the color coding will need to work to use text placement to identify the speaker. This design foible marks the book for fairly sophisticated emergent readers. Again! Again! (Picture book/early reader. 4-7)

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