Wickiup Walkingstick

Joan Sanderson is a professional storyteller doing “Book Talks” for
Minnow Books.

The story line of this book is very simple, and will appeal to young
children in the three-to-six age range. Wickiup the walking-stick insect
has a problem. His survival is threatened. He finds his own solution,
which is clever, but a tiny insect being spray painted by a lumberjack
is somewhat unrealistic: would Wickiup ever have survived the first
spray painting never mind the second? But perhaps this is looking at the
text from too adult a perspective, for this is a story about winning
against the odds.

One would hope that children would relate to the smallness of Wickiup
and the bigness of the world around him. One would also hope that they
might gain a little understanding of nature, its creatures, their
vulnerability, and the role of human beings in all of it. This may be
too much to ask, but the questioning that this book might prompt would
be a beginning.

The drawings in this book are quite beautiful but too small and too
pastel to speak to little children. They need to be bolder, and as
strong and clear as the words “orange, green and black” are in the
text. They also need to show clearly the scale of Wickiup to his
surroundings.

The language is a good match for the plot and the use of the words
“Rrroar, Pssssst and Swooooop” helps lift the story from the page.
The fact that they are repeated and stand on lines by themselves would
help breathe life into the oral reading of this book.