Review #29: Kidogo

Dad:  "Kidogo" by Anik McGrory...  I'm in love with it.  What do you guys think?
Gracie (age 8):  This book has really good descriptions: "Endless fields of rippling gold," and "Nights that were deeper than his dreams."
Lily (age 6):  This book has a little elephant.  Kidogo is the littlest elephant in the world.
Gracie:  He’s so cute!  The teeniest, tiniest elephant in the universe.
Lily:  Kidogo has no horns yet.
Dad:  I don't think any elephants have horns.
Lily:  Yuh-huh.
Gracie:  Tusks, Lily.  Horns are things monsters have on top of their heads.
Lily:  Kidogo is a little elephant that doesn't like being little.  Elephants are supposed to be humungo'.
Isaac (age 10):  So Kidogo goes off to find someone smaller than him.  When he was hunting for animals, he came across a hippopotamus, a lion, and a giraffe.  Each time, he thinks he has found a little animal.
Gracie:  Like with the lion -- at first he just saw the lion's tail, so it looked like a little guy.  But when the lion stood up, Kidogo freaked out and ran away.
Isaac:  He finds those big animals.  But there's always little animals behind him that he doesn't see because he never looks backwards.  He always looks forward for some reason.
Lily:  But finally he does find something even littler than him - ants!  And ants think Kidogo is a giant.  And Kidogo learns that he is just the right size.
Gracie:  What if the ants feel bad now?
Isaac:  If a baby ant thought he was the teeniest thing in the world, he really would have a problem finding something smaller than himself.
Gracie:  But what if there is another little guy, smaller than an ant, and he's just too small for us to see?
Dad:  Well, there are creatures we can't see.
Isaac:  There are?
Dad:  If we got a microscope, and took a little drip from the pond across the street, you would be amazed at the gazillions of itty bitty creatures in the soupy-zoo, swimming around in that one drop of water.
Isaac:  Let's do it!
Dad:  There's even tiny little creatures that live in your eyelashes.  They live there your whole life, and you never even know it.
Gracie:  Actually, I don't think those were ants in the book, Dad.  I think those are termites.  Because they are going up into that big termite hill.
Dad:  I agree.
Isaac:  Lookit - there's another little animal behind Kidogo in this picture.
Dad:  I didn't even notice it.  Kidogo doesn't see him either, does he?
Lily:  And I also didn't notice those little guys.
Dad:  Oh wow - me either!  Not until you just pointed them out.  This picture is full of little guys.  So this is kind of like a "look-and-find" book too.
Lily:  A frog!  And a bird!
Gracie:  And there's an animal!
Lily:  There's one!
Dad:  I don't know how many times I've read this, and I've never seen any of these little guys...
Isaac:  Look there's some animals right here.
Gracie:  Kidogo's not looking behind him.
Isaac:  They're always behind him.
Lily:  He doesn't see the little guys.
Isaac:  Kidogo, you've got to look behind you!
Dad:  So guys, tell me about the art...
Isaac:  The paintings are so cool!  It looks like she just splashed the different colors onto the drawings.
Lily:  It looks like little globs of goo.
Isaac:  It looks so beautiful.  I want to learn to do that.
Dad:  Now, sometimes a picture fills a whole page.  But do you know what a little picture like this is called?
Lily:  White space!
Dad:  Well, there is white space around it.  When there's white space around it, the picture is called "spot art."
Isaac: (singing)  Spotty art, spotty art, spotty-spotty-spotty art!
Dad:  Anything else you want to say about the drawings?
Gracie:  Just by the shape of his face, you can tell how Kidogo is feeling.
Isaac:  I'll show you: I won't read the words, but I can tell he's a little worried right here.  And here, he's -- okay I have no idea what that one is.  And in this one right here, he looks like he is stubborn... or something.
Lily:  He looks like he is drowsy.
Dad:  Drowsy!  That's a good word, Lily.
Gracie:  Mom taught her that word...  because Lily was being drowsy.
Isaac:  Kidogo is surprised right here.  And not so happy.
Dad:  The story doesn't even have to tell you his emotion.  You just look at his ears and you can totally tell how he's feeling.
Gracie:  Kidogo has emotional ears.  Very dramatic ears.
Isaac:  I don't think he talks at all in the whole story.
Dad:  No, he's an elephant.  Elephants don't talk.
Isaac:  Yeah, they go: Vvvvrooooooooooo-rooooooo.
Dad:  But there's no English-speaking animals.  So then, is this a realistic kind of story?  Or not realistic?
Isaac:  Realistic...  or... realistic-ish...  or... not-ish.
Dad:  No, it is.  It's set realistically.  I mean... it's not like the animals are wearing pants.
Gracie:  Dad, I think Kidogo must be a girl.  She has eyelashes.
Dad:  I have eyelashes.
Isaac:  I have eyelashes.
Gracie:  Yeah but in books, only girls have eyelashes.

Kidogo meets a rhinoceros, by Gracie


with a butterfly and bird at the termite mound, by Lily


Kidogo chasing a kingfisher, by Isaac

(Note: you can always click a picture for a closer view...)


Author/Illustrator: Anik McGrory
Published, 2005: Bloomsbury
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