Scaredy Squirrel - Melanie Watt

Kids Can Press, 2006
32 pgs with one that flips open
For: Ages 4-8
Rating: 4.5
Endpapers: Front: rows of huge brown & green acorns on a blue background
Back: a P.S. picture with Scaredy Squirrel waving goodbye.

There's a section in Bookmarks magazine each issue called "have you read?" It's a list of favorite books by different readers. In the March/April 2010 issue, Jennifer Roy (author of Yellow Star) mentions a picture book that she and her son have reread many times. So I borrowed it from the library, and here it is! Yup, it's fun, yup, it's laugh-out-loud, and yup, this fella sure has plenty of neuroses, just as Ms. Roy claimed. And it looks like this one got ole' Scaredy started, because I now see Scaredy Squirrel at Night, Scaredy Squirrel Makes a Friend, and Scaredy Squirrel at the Beach!

Scaredy Squirrel never...EVER...leaves his tree. There are too many things that he's scared of. He has an emergency kit prepared that will help him in any sort of trouble. That is, until one day he needs it, then all sorts of things he never planned for happen. But good things come from life, too.....Scaredy discovers that he's a FLYING squirrel!

The illustrations are big and bold - thick black lines colored with great outdoor colors, not too bright, but not wimpy at all. She uses all sorts of storytelling techniques, boxes with time frames, clocks, bulleted lists. Lots to look at , lots to think about.

Hurrah! A very cool book.