Square Eyes
Book review by Trevor Agnew
Square Eyes (2014)
Craig Smith (NZ), ill. Scott Tulloch, Scholastic, 32pages, paperback ISBN 978 1 77543 269 2
‘He gets no
exercise because he’s got square eyes.’
The text of this picture book is an original song by
Craig Smith, the New Zealand performer and lyric writer, famous for his
performance of The Wonky Donkey
(2009). This time his subject is the
need to stop watching so much television. The suggestion is that there are
other things to do:
‘Listen to some
music, dance your way to fame,
read a book, invent
a new game.’
Various animals are shown exercising, swimming, reading,
and even doing their chores.
Scott Tulloch’s watercolour illustrations are witty
accompaniments to the song. He has shrewdly chosen a diverse group of animals
to illustrate the various activities, many of them with large (square) eyes
like the owl and lemur. At the centre of most pictures is a marvellous
TV-addicted panda who has dark square markings around his eyes. Sharp-eyed
readers will also spot a bumblebee which takes up music in the style of Bob
Marley.
A CD of the song, performed by Craig Smith (with a strong
Caribbean flavour) is included
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