August 2007 (cont.)

The range of response these books have received from reviewers has been...well, I suppose the word is interesting.

One important review source starred A Mama for Owen, a storybook retelling of the true story of the baby hippo, separated from his mother and his pod during the 2004 tsunami. Upon being rescued, he made the news by bonding with a giant tortoise. To everyone’s amazement, the tortoise even responded to the baby hippo. The reviewer recommended the book highly and said, “A rhythmic, lulling narrative helps to smooth the barbed edges of the natural disaster.”

Another review, however, referred to the story as “sentimentalized.”

But then another said, “It’s a well-spun story with gentle repetition and careful structuring bolstering the telling.”

Still another said that the effect of the combination of my text and John Butler’s illustrations was “cloying and monotonous.”

Another ignored the book entirely, though that was to be expected.