3 out of 4 stars
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Patricia A. Gummeson’s Lizzie and Leopold is a sweet and dreamy picture book about the various creatures that inhabit a beautiful garden. From lizards to turtles and fairies to frogs, there are lots of new friends to meet. This picture book is sure to delight young readers.
Let’s start with the heart of the book: the illustrations. They’re nothing short of stunning. Vibrant, detailed, and seemingly Art Deco-inspired, every picture was lovely to look at. I even zoomed in while reading to take in the intricate foliage and animals. The imagery is sure to spark kids’ imaginations and perhaps kick off conversations and pretend play as kids make up their own stories to fit the pictures.
The story is just as whimsical. There's not really much of a plot, just a narrator introducing the reader to their various friends around the garden: Lizzie and Leopold the lizards, Susie the spider, Frieda the frog, and many more. It’s all very quaint – Lizzie and her friends wear bonnets and drink tea together. Fairies live in the mushroom patch behind the gazebo. The story reminded me quite a bit of the childrens’ show Little Bear (one of my favorites as a kid). It’s sort of daydream-y and gentle, full of cute details and free of conflict.
Unfortunately, I did notice that the illustrations and the text sometimes don’t work well together. There are places where the illustration doesn’t have anything to do with the text on the facing page, and it’s only once you turn to the following page that you understand what the previous picture was about. This could be so easily fixed by rearranging portions of the writing to keep the story and the images consistent with each other, and I think doing so would really improve the book.
It’s a bit hard for me to tell what age group the author had in mind for her book. On the one hand, the lack of plot and the vibrant illustrations suggest that the book is for very young children. On the other hand, the writing is quite dense and detailed, and perhaps best suited for 1st or 2nd graders. The best way to split the difference, I think, would be to use the book as a read-aloud for story time. That way, kids can enjoy the pictures and the story while parents do the ‘heavy lifting’ of reading.
Overall, I highly recommend this book despite seeing a little room for improvement. I rate it 3 out of 4 stars, and I think parents and teachers looking for a beautiful addition to their story time selection would get the most enjoyment out of it. I’d sure love to have friends like Lizzie and Leopold.
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Lizzie and Leopold
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