Customer Reviews

Little Toot and the Lighthouse

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Linda Gramatky-Smith extends the Little Toot franchise in this 1999 imprint by Grosset & Dunlap. Instead of simulating her father's work, however, Smith and illustrator Mark Weber shade the character with their own sensibilities. Hardie Gramatky's original Toot illustrations were calligraphic and elastic; an ex-Disney artist, Gramatky's Toot slumped, glided and tugged with great emotional expressiveness. Weber's Toot, on the other hand, is more toy-like and solid; his Toot performs with his face not his body. The storylines also differ. In the original Gramatky book, Little Toot becomes a hero through ingenuity and pluck; he blows smoke signals and then overcomes his small size through sheer determination. Smith's Toot becomes heroic through cognitive facility--he is able to find his way home by remembering landmarks. In the end, both Smith's book and Gramatky's original book play to a child's desire for significance but differ in what it means to achieve it.

This is a very neat story about a boat and his father and the trip they take together to Maine to visit some friends. All along the way, Toot's father explains to him that to find his way back, he must remember the landmarks the he sees on the way up. This proves invaluable to Little Toot when he meets his new friend Bob and they go far away from their parents to play on a beach. It gets dark and they both forget how to get back home. However, Toot remembers the landmarks and figures out which way to go to reach their destination. Both get a stern speaking to for not telling their parents where they were going so that someone knew where they were in case they needed help. They learned a great lesson and Toot lead the way home after their visit to Maine by viewing the landmarks.

This book teaches quite a bit to my little guy and he doesn't even realize it. He just likes to read about Toot's adventures but tells me that Toot had better pay attention to where he's going so he can get back home. It's taught him to watch those things himself and he knows where we're going in the car by just looking at the landmarks. This is a great, great book and a good find for little ones.