  | Full Text Reviews: School Library Journal - 04/01/2014 PreS-Gr 1—With an illustration style reminiscent of Lois Ehlert's and storytelling style similar to Eric Carle's, this tale of imagination succeeds in its bold simplicity. Five carpenter ants, with distinct personalities to delight readers, use the length of the book to discover what is making noise outside of their home. During the course of drilling holes to see what's causing such a ruckus, the ants explore color, revealing a magnificent surprise at the end of the book. The use of die-cut bore holes on each page build action and suspense in a way that readers and nonreaders alike will appreciate. Hall has crafted a book that works in a variety settings, as well. The use of color has application to early learning curricular needs, while the pace and flow of the text works well for read-aloud and storytime settings. Get ready to have another go-to favorite to pair with cherished titles like Carle's The Very Hungry Caterpillar (Penguin, 1969) and Ehlert's Color Zoo (HarperCollins, 1989).—Beth Dobson, Weatherly Heights Elementary School, Huntsville, AL - Copyright 2014 Publishers Weekly, Library Journal and/or School Library Journal used with permission. Booklist - 05/01/2014 Hard-hat-wearing ants hear a sound from outside their tree and assume the worst: an ant-hungry aardvark is waiting just outside the bark of their stump. One calm-headed fellow, however, drills a small hole to have a peek, and from there begins a growing puzzle that young readers will enjoy digging into, carried along by Hall’s clever design and suspenseful storytelling. Each die-cut peephole lets in a ray of color and gives readers another clue, leading to increasingly amusing suggestions: it’s an orange aardvark in blue pajamas! No, wait; it’s an orange aardvark in blue pajamas carrying a large bottle of ketchup! The solution proves more recognizable than that, and savvy young readers will happily solve it just before the ants do. Using bold shapes and colors, Hall (My Heart Is a Zoo, 2010) stylishly keeps those young eyes locked in through to the “surprise” ending, which is only slightly undermined by a somewhat confusing final-page twist that could possibly be troubling for the youngest readers.a - Copyright 2014 Booklist. Bulletin for the Center... - 09/01/2014 A group of five carpenter ants are stuck in a tree stump, convinced there is an ant-eating aardvark waiting for them just outside. The ant in the red hard hat (both the leader and the instigator of drama) decides to drill a hole through the wood and have a peek. Spying something orange, he then modifies his aardvark description to suit his findings (“Aardvarks turn orange when they are hungry for ants, you know”). As he drills more and more holes (actual die-cut openings in the pages) and spies more and more colors, his explanations grow wilder and wilder, eventually declaring in a state of outright panic, “It’s a pajama-wearing, ketchup-carrying, gecko-guiding, dozer-driving, orange aardvark pouring purple grape juice!” The more reasonable yellow-hat ant isn’t going for it; when he leaves the stump to explore, he instead discovers a brilliant rainbow arcing across the sky. The surprising final page finds the red-hat ant stuck in the stump with an actual orange aardvark drinking juice up top. Hall’s latest outing is entertaining both for its unusual cast of characters and its amusing yarn-spinning; the red-hat ant’s preposterous explanations are delightfully silly and perfectly suited to the audience. The digitally assembled illustrations (which incorporate acrylic painted textures and torn paper, according to a note) are strongly geometric, with large-scale shapes pieced together to form the characters and the setting, while softened textures and blurred pigments recall Eric Carle’s collage work. This could entertain a group, who will giggle at the commanding ant’s accumulating catalogue of frenzy in this clever tale. HM - Copyright 2014 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois. Loading...
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