Look Up!

By Izzy B
Swing High Children’s Books
Picture Book, 32 pages, ages 3-10

Gramm is a really grumpy ant, an Ebenezer Scrooge kind of grumpy ant. Nothing makes him happy, in fact, he’s unhappy from the moment he wakes up in the morning. Gramm lives in a thorn, and though he’s convinced it’s the worst place on earth others begin to stop and stare at his house with a look of joy.

Mouse’s house is a hole in the wall and beetle lives under a rock. Then there’s the roach who explained that he lives in the trash which is smelly and rotting, all of which makes Gramm so angry he slams the door on them all. He’s convinced his house is worse by far… until he looks up.

“That thorn was no thorn as he’d always supposed. That thorn was a thorn … on a beautiful rose.”

Though the multi-layered messages in this book could have become heavy-handed the author picked a thoughtful way to convey gratefulness, self-realization, and transformation with humor as well as sincerity. The illustrator , Stewart Long, did an equally delightful job with color and expression, the goggle wearing roach and the blue beetle make you smile just to look at them.

This book leaves lots of room for discussion, from dealing with anger and resentment, to forgiveness and gratefulness, in a rhyming lyrical cozy way. Another great effort from a talented author proving he can expand his scope from the hilarious to the thoughtful and still maintain a genuine quality of entertainment.

Look Up! By Izzy B gets 5 stars from this reviewer.