Meeting the Norm: Normal Norman by Tara Lazar

THIS IS MY FIRST TIME NARRATING A BOOK. I'M A BIT NERVOUS.

MY ASSIGNMENT TODAY IS TO DEFINE THE WORLD "NORMAL."

Our student scientist is all set to do field observations. She's got the magnifying glass. She's got the clipboard. She's got the lab coat. And she's got a subject for her observations.

He's a gorilla.

ALLOW ME TO INTRODUCE NORMAN. HE WILL HELP ME DEMONSTRATE THE WORD NORMAL.

Norman is clearly a gorilla. What might be a normal gorilla diet?

Bananas, of course.

Except Norman displays a clear preference for... pizza!

Our junior scientist tries to induce Norman to try a banana. She even peels it for him!

"NO--OOO--OOO!"

Wait a minute! Norman speaks English? Don't normal gorillas grunt?

Norman refuses to sleep in a tree. He prefers climbing into his bunk bed! Our young scientists offers him a pile of nice, fresh leaves and branches. Norman hunts up his plush toy anteater.

"I CAN'T SLEEP WITHOUT MR. SNUFFLES!" NORMAN PROTESTS.

"AN ANIMAL WITH A STUFFED ANIMAL? THIS IS NOT NORMAL!"

Norman simply doesn't conform to the norm!

Our young scientist can't argue with her raw data. Maybe... she needs to alter her hypothesis!

Could normal be impossible to define? Sometimes it is, in Tara Lazar's Normal Norman (Sterling Books, 2016). Norman may not be your normal gorilla, but he's a lot of fun to hang out with, as our heroine discovers as she rides away with abnormal Norman, a friendly purple and gold gorilla, on his mount of choice, a rhinoceros with bells on his horns! Our novice animal scientist seems to be the only conventional character in this imaginative tale of abnormal Norman, illustrated with appropriate outside-the-box page design, fonts, and colors by S. Britt. A creative look at a walk on the wild side.

To See Ourselves As Others See Us! Betty Goes Bananas by Steve Anthony

BETTY WAS HUNGRY.

SHE SAW A BANANA. BUT THE BANANA...

DID NOT OPEN.

Betty is a small gorilla, with soft, fuzzy fur, wearing a prim and prissy pink frock and a big, girly hair bow.

But faced with a banana that she can't get open, Betty becomes a beast.

She tries to peel it with her finger, but the banana stays zipped. She tries to open it with her feet. Finally, she bites at it angrily.

WAAAAAAAAAAA! Betty goes ape!

She snivelled. SNIFF! SNIFF!

She kicked her heels, with a BANG! and a BANG!, and she screamed some more! AAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Luckily, a calmer head prevails.

"THERE'S NO NEED FOR THAT," SAID MR. TOUCAN.

Trying to head off another outburst, Mr. Toucan deftly slices the banana peel open for Betty.

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

Betty wanted to peel it herself. Now it's ruined! Another fit follows, with the prerequisite sniveling, sniffing, banging, and yelling.

Again Mr. Toucan tries to make nice, and offers her the banana. Betty remembers that she was hungry, and deigns to accept the proffered peeled banana. She grabs it and just as it is on the way to her mouth, it breaks into two pieces....

WAAAAAAAAA! (Etc., Etc., Etc.) Betty goes bananas!

This time Mr. Toucan wisely waits until her tantrum is over.

Clearly, there's no need for all that fuss!

"OR WOULD YOU LIKE ME TO HAVE THE BANANA?"

With a scowl, Betty snatches the broken banana and chows down. Problem solved.

Or is it? Isn't that another (unpeeled) banana on the next page?

Steve Anthony'sBetty Goes Bananas (Schwartz and Wade, 2014) is appropriately illustrated, from the endpapers featuring dressed and undressed bananas, to the bright banana-yellow page background that turn orange and then red as Betty's temper flares hot. Anthony deftly pokes a little fun at toddler temper tantrums while giving youngsters an opportunity to see themselves as others see them in full fit. "This simple, close-up tale, brightly illustrated by Antony with crayonlike strokes of black with soft pink and yellow, speaks to the foot-stamping, banana-gobbling toddler in all of us, says New York Times Book Review.