Review - Little Hoot

Little Hoot (Little Books)
by Amy Krouse Rosenthal
illustrated by Jen Corace
Date: 2007
Publisher: Chronicle Books LLC
Reading level: C
Book type: picture book
Pages: 32
Format: e-book
Source: Amazon.ca

It's not fair! All Little Owl wants is to go to bed at a reasonable hour, like his friends do. But no... Mama and Papa say little owls have to stay up late and play. So Little Owl spends all night jumping on his bed, playing on the jungle gym, and doing tricks on his skateboard but he's hooting mad about it! Children who have a hard time going to bed will love this fun twist on the universal dilemma.

(synopsis from Goodreads)

This was surprisingly disappointing. I've read the other two books in the series (Little Pea and Little Oink) and thought they were really cute. I can usually turn to Amy Krouse Rosenthal's books for some solid writing and storytelling. For some reason, though, this book was riddled with nonsensical dialogue tags and extra letters and punctuation that come across as way too casual for a published book. (Yes, I know we're dealing with an owl. He hoots. I get it. But I don't get the need for fourteen exclamation points on the end of one sentence.)

The illustrations are cute (I like Little Hoot's hooded sweatshirt) but they're not quite as engaging as those in Little Oink. And the story seemed like it was over so quickly in this one. Little Hoot's parents say he has to stay up for one more hour and play before he's allowed to go to bed. So the young owl occupies himself for the required number of minutes and then goes to bed. I get the schtick... but it doesn't seem to work as well here as it did in the other books.

Overall, I'd probably only recommend this if it were given with the other two books. As part of a set, it works. On its own, it's a little weak.

Premise: 4/5
Meter: n/a
Writing: 2/5
Illustrations: 3/5
Originality: 3/5

Enjoyment: 3/5

Overall: 3 out of 5