Amazon.com Review
Being a kangaroo certainly
looks like a lot of fun, what with all the hopping and the hay eating. But who knew all that jumping around could cause such problems? Marsupial Sue, that's who, a smartly dressed young 'roo who can't abide by all the bouncing: "It rattled her brain. It gave her migraine. A
backache,
sideache,
tummyache too."
So John Lithgow recounts in 4/4 time--along with the jaunty, waltzy music and score on the CD that's included--in his second foray into children's books (The Remarkable Farkle McBride being the first). Probably best known as Dick Solomon on TV's 3rd Rock from the Sun, Lithgow brings his comic knack to this Down Under story about the importance of being yourself. Marsupial Sue might be intrigued by the idea of being a climbing koala or prawn-slurping platypus, but with Lithgow's cooing reassurance as the narrator, she eventually comes around: "Be happy with who you are. / Don't ever stray too far from you. / Get rid of that frown / And waltz up and down / beneath a marsupial star. / If you're a kangaroo through and through, / Just do what kangaroos do."
Lithgow will likely never surpass the spiritual contributions he made to our world as Doctor Emilio Lizardo and John Whorfin, but don't hold that against him. Like Farkle, Marsupial Sue is surely worth a read (and a listen), especially with illustrator Jack E. Davis's cool cast of sunglass- and snappy-hat-wearing Aussie animals. (Ages 4 to 8) --Paul Hughes
From Publishers Weekly
Lithgow (The Remarkable Farkle McBride) follows his successful debut with another musically inspired tale, which dances in waltz rhythm through Davis's (Music Over Manhattan) cleverly drawn illustrations. This whimsical song-set-to-pictures features malcontented Marsupial Sue, unhappy because kangaroo-hopping "rattled her brain" and "gave her migraine, a backache, sideache and tummyache, too." So the Birkenstock-clad kangaroo sets off to find kindred spirits among other Australian animals. (Though all she finds is howling pain when she falls out of the koalas' tree and "typhoid, pneumonia, colic, and gout" from her seaside dallying with the platypuses.) "Marsupial Sue,/ A lesson or two:/ Be happy with who you are./ Don't ever stray too far from you," the refrain warns each time her wanderings result in turmoil. Not until she flounces and jounces with the wallabies ("Exactly like her only not quite so tall") does she realize she's happy after all doing what kangaroos do, though no explanation is given of why hopping no longer bothers her. Davis's charming illustrations, rendered in colored pencil, acrylics and ink, are full of personifying characteristics (wallabies in headphones and sunglasses on birds) that entertain on their own merit. Lithgow's ebullient encore (companion CD included) will strike a positive note with book and music lovers alike. Ages 4-8.
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