Great Big Guinea Pigs
PreSchool-Grade 2–A mother guinea pig tells her child a goodnight story with a twist: their ancestors were giants. As she describes the details of their size (We were as big as buffalo!) and habits, he interjects with excited questions and comments. Though her offspring has some doubts about the story's truth, Mom confirms at the end that she read about it this morning in theTimes(newspaper scraps line their cage). Roth's creative color collages shift back and forth between the modern animals in their cozy home and dramatic but lighthearted scenes of the giant beasts in prehistoric South America. The textured torn paper that makes the smaller rodents seem so cuddly looks appropriately odd on their much larger predecessors, whose sharp but goofy teeth and expressive eyes add to the sense of fun. The first full view of the great big guinea pigs, which requires a vertical turn of the book, is especially entertaining. With varied perspectives, expressive figures, and creative composition, the spreads bring both modern and prehistoric worlds to life. A white background clearly differentiates the mother-child scenes from the richly colored images from eight million years ago. While fun to read and visually engaging, the book also presents fascinating information based on recent scientific discoveries. The facts come through in the dialogue without detracting from the lively interplay. The idea of introducing prehistoric mammals within a bedtime tale is original and highly successful.–Steven Engelfried, Beaverton City Library, ORCopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.