FICTION

Owl Boy

by Brian SCHATELL
illus. by Brian Schatell. 32p. Holiday House. May 2015. Tr $16.95. ISBN 9780823432080; ebk. $16.95. ISBN 9780823433247.
COPY ISBN
PreS-Gr 1—Al loves owls—his bedroom is papered with pictures of them, he can spout off facts about them, and he even tries to behave like one. This means being solitary, nocturnal, and turning up his nose at his mother's meat loaf with the refrain, "Owls eat mice!" But when his parents, in their efforts to get him to enjoy the things other human boys do, send him off to summer camp, he has a chance to bond with some real owls. It's magical—until he actually tastes a mouse, and suddenly meat loaf and baseball seem far more appealing. Schatell's big-eyed characters, rendered in watercolor and ink, are appealing and fit the humorous tone of the story.
VERDICT Parents and kids alike will recognize the obsessive tendencies of childhood, and if Al's sudden passion for baseball is a bit jarring, it is handled with humor.
Reviewed by Kathleen Kelly MacMillan, Carroll County Public Library, MD
Owl-obsessed kid Al, shipped off to summer camp to engage in some human-centered activities, gets to meet a real live owl on a nighttime hike in the woods. His appetite for all things owl is quickly curbed when he experiences a real (revolting) owl meal: a dead mouse. Dark, purple-hued watercolors emphasize owly-eyed Al's fixation with subtle humor.
, Mar 01, 2015

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