Big and Noisy Simon - Hardcover

Simon, the hero of Wallace's (The Camera) gracefully told story, tries to overcome his rambunctious nature: "He was as noisy as he was big, and that made him very noisy." On a summer trip to Africa with his parents, who are wildlife photographers, Simon tries to keep quiet, especially on the photo shoots, but he just cannot manage. Excluded from a shoot, Simon is miserable: "Now he knew that he wasn't just bigger and noisier than anyone else in his class, but in all of Africa, too." Fortunately, a herd of elephants big, noisy elephants fill him with confidence and, surprisingly, inspire him to be quieter as well, when he sees them moving silently at night. He carries the lesson home, where sometimes, just as he's "about to be big and noisy," he remembers the elephants. "He'd pretend he was walking across the dark savanna, and the only sound was the grass whispering against his smooth gray sides." O'Malley's (Leo Cockroach... Toy Tester) puckish illustrations capture Simon in all his overeager glory: his mouth stretches hugely across his face, his body seems either in motion or rigid with the effort to be still. Two particularly fine vistas one of the elephants at night and one of Simon seated on a vast, twilit savanna evoke the composure Simon aspires to, showing both the protagonist's and the illustrator's more thoughtful sides. Ages 4-7.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

K-Gr 2-Everyone likes Simon, but he is often too noisy and he's definitely too big. His family and friends are forever telling him to quiet down and be more careful. He tries, he really tries. Then, on a family trip to Africa, after frightening every animal around, the child sees his idols: elephants-the biggest and noisiest animals ever. He is momentarily happy with his own size and volume. Then he sees a procession of them at night, still big but quiet. From that point on, Simon continues to be big, but he is not always as noisy. This is a strange and wordy picture book that loses its message of self-acceptance in a quagmire of self-analytic narration, and the ending is confusing in its push to tell readers everything. There is some small character development, but there is only one character. Everyone else is part of the scenery. O'Malley's illustrations are, as usual, expressive, energetic, and positively ebullient, but are never in sync with the words on the page. Take a pass on this one and purchase Steven Bauer's similarly themed The Strange and Wonderful Tale of Robert McDoodle (S & S, 1999).

Timothy Capehart, Leominster Public Library, MA

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.