One More Acorn
K-Gr 1–The celebrated creator of Corduroy (Viking, 1968) left behind scraps of this story, which his son has pieced together and completed. In Washington, DC, Earl the squirrel joins his park comrades in searching beneath orange leaves for stashes of hidden acorns to feed his wife and three kits. Unable to find the biggest acorn he hid during the summer, Earl braves traffic to cross Pennsylvania Avenue and cuts through to the Washington Monument, where scads of humans are gathered to watch a parade. A child's inconvenient meddling leads Earl to employ him as a stepping-stone to home. The 1960s style of Don Freeman's original inspiration stays true, but some scenes are significantly more detailed and complete, making for an unbalanced whole. Readers don't know the focus of the parade, and little actually happens. Earl's lack of emotional range makes investment in his success reserved at best.–Gay Lynn Van Vleck, Henrico County Library, Glen Allen, VAα(c) Copyright 2010.  Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc.  No redistribution permitted.