When something supremely silly is needed for choose Erroll. Or as Erroll himself might “Pick me! Pick me! Pick me!” And then he’d turn a somersault, swing from the drapes, and get peanut butter all over everything.
For kids who like high-energy shenanigans, and for grown-ups who’d like to almost prove the point that a neat-and-tidy suburban home may not be the best place for a very wild critter, this fun and funny story of a boy who finds a talking squirrel in his snack package will be just the ticket.
Hannah Shaw was born into a large family of sprout munching vegetarians.
As is the oldest child, she spent her formative years trying to be good at everything; from roller-skating to gymnastics. Hannah soon realised there wasn’t much chance of her becoming a gold medal winning gymnast, so she resigned herself to drawing pictures and writing stories!
By some mean feat Hannah found herself at the University of Brighton doing a degree in illustration. Soon an overwhelming obsession to make books took over her life. Inspired by her love of furry animals, Hannah wrote and illustrated her first picture book Evil Weasel, published by Jonathan Cape (Random House) in 2008. Her next book Erroll, about a boy who finds a squirrel in his packet of nuts, is out in 2009.
Hannah currently lives in a little cottage in the Cotswolds, with her husband Ben the blacksmith and her rescue dog Ren. Her over-active imagination fuels new ideas but unfortunately keeps her awake at night!
Whenever I hear the name Erroll, I think of the great jazz pianist Erroll Garner. After reading this book, that’s who I will still recall because this squirrel Erroll doesn’t have anything memorable or cool about him. If the highlight of a book is a peanut butter sandwich, it should not be published.
Moral: I guess we’re supposed to re-home talking squirrels.
Length: Fortunately, even the author spared us the boring details of Erroll the squirrel.
Favorite Line: “He made Erroll a triple mega peanut butter sandwich as a goodbye present.”
Overall Impression: If you ever encounter a talking squirrel who has as little to say about his life as Erroll, you will be as disappointed as I was reading this book. There’s nothing thrilling or magical about this chance encounter. Bob’s mom just wants Erroll out of her house. I think she could have taken him to the fair or to a zoologist or something more fun than the forest. Or maybe Erroll could have taken Bob through the forest and showed him the ropes. But that would require fun and this book has very little of that. By the time the book sets up a sequel with a monkey, you’ll wish you had read a different book instead.
I'll be honest, I wanted to like this book, but it felt lacking. There was a lot to the illustrations, almost too much on some pages, and it felt overwhelming. The story felt a little all over the place as well. It is implied toward the end of the book that Erroll the squirrel is the cause of the mess and got Bob into trouble, but really, some of it was definitely Bob. Some of the details are a bit silly, like the bear on the bike, and it is not clear to me if Bob climbed out of a top floor window and up a tree or if on his was out he just somehow was able to miss his mother, who in the page where he is up the tree is in the house looking at the mess. The ending was very predictable. But honestly, 8 guess I just couldn't like this book and it would not be at the top of my list of recommendations.
I checked out this book because my hubby has a not-so-mild obsession with squirrels, and I thought this might be fun for him to read. But it didn't live up to expectations. The story was all over the place, the illustrations made it hard to read the text, and the main character was supremely unappealing. I was, quite frankly, glad when it was over!
What happens when you find a talking squirrel in your package of nuts?! A silly story with fun illustrations that my kindergarten library students enjoy. I round out my squirrel storytime with Nuts to You! and Grey Squirrel. I use my Folkmanis gray squirrel puppet to act out the "Grey Squirrel" song while the kids follow along. Everybody loves shaking their bushy tails!
When Bob finds a squirrel in his package of Nutti Nuts, he is in for a whirlwind of a day! After discovering Erroll, the talking squirrel, in his snack, Bob is in for a whirlwind of a day! After giving Erroll a peanut butter sandwich, mayhem and messes follow at every turn. When Bob's mom discovers Erroll, she makes Bob take him back to the woods. But the following day, Bob has Chewy Crunchy Monkey Munchy for breakfast and I'll bet you can imagine what popped out of the box! The book was a little hyperactive and the illustrations are borderline too busy to fully be enjoyed.
This book was intriguing, but I wasn't fond of the main character Erroll. Disliking the main character made it much harder to like this book, but I did enjoy the illustrations a lot! The illustrations are colorful, playful, and include quite a bit of detail/texture. I like Hannah Shaw's debut picture book Sneaky Weasel much better.
Very funny. Cute story about a boy who finds a talking squirrel in his cereal box. Good for ages 4 and up. Might even be good for storytime as it is pretty short
A quirky little story about a boy who finds a squirrel named Erroll in his package of nuts. Children will love the ending. Better with a small group due to illustrative details.