The Thing Lou Couldn't Do

March 1, 2017
Try, try, and try again, even if you don't succeed. Lou, a girl with brown skin, and her diverse band of friends--a redheaded white boy, two brown girls, and a loyal cat companion--enjoy brave adventures. Together, they outrun airplanes, build mighty fortresses, and rescue wild animals. When her friends suggest they play pirates and use the tree as their pirate ship, they, without hesitation, climb up and aboard. All but Lou. Her friends encourage and reassure her. "It will be an adventure," which Lou loves, but her fear and lack of experience are real and get in the way. Attempting to avoid climbing that tree, she gives myriad reasons: her arm is sore, the cat needs a walk, she stepped on a slug and his funeral is in five minutes, she found out she is part fish and needs to be in water to survive, and so on. She finally admits to her friends that she cannot climb a tree. Lou inventively imagines alternate ways of joining her mateys in the branches: a trampoline, a pole vault, or a helicopter. Then a cry for help encourages Lou to put on her eye patch and climb aboard. Up, up, up. To readers' amusement, she makes it nowhere and falls a short distance to the ground. No matter: her friends find a different game all can play. To accompany her third-person narration and dialogue, Spires, known for the Binky graphic novels, uses clean, simple illustrations to envision various amusing scenarios. Unfortunately, Lou's excuses are more interesting than the story, which ends on a flat, moral note. While it offers a valuable lesson, it's not a terribly eventful or memorable book. (Picture book. 3-7)

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May 1, 2017

PreS-Gr 1-Lou and her friends love daring adventures, but when it comes to climbing trees, Lou sulks because she can't do it. Playing high in the branches of a tree, her companions are slow to notice Lou's plight. Midway through the story, they come down to offer help, but Lou isn't ready to climb the tree yet. After considering a few alternative ways to get into the tree, Lou gives climbing a try-and fails. Finally, recognizing her lack of skill, the friends take their game out of the tree and back to the ground. Lou holds no grudges and decides to try climbing another time. Digital illustrations include a set of culturally diverse, cartoonlike characters who are expressive yet somewhat unappealing, often set on a background of stark white space with some shading. The artwork is serviceable, but the book's main value is in the message it imparts-that it's better to attempt a challenge than to avoid it, although success is not always guaranteed. Lou goes through a range of emotional states in her struggle to overcome her inability to climb, but she doesn't let her obstacle defeat her. VERDICT This tale about meeting life's challenges and not giving up is a good purchase for medium or larger libraries.-Gaye Hinchliff, King County Library System, WA

Copyright 2017 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

January 1, 2018
Lou is left out when her friends play pirate up in a tree: she would prefer "a NOT-UP-A-TREE game." Lou invents excuses but eventually decides to try climbing; though (refreshingly) Lou doesn't succeed, she persists. Lou's character displays an impressive but still realistic emotional depth, and Spires's digital illustrations with speech bubbles depict this multicultural group of friends with imagination and thoughtfulness.

(Copyright 2018 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)