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Squirrel Do Badby Stephan Pastis Paperback, 287 pg. Read: October 25-26, 2021 |
Always remember—even the smallest thing you do can have big consequences.
What’s Squirrel Do Bad About?
Wendy the Wanderer is a little girl who desperately wants to travel the world, but her over-protective father has other ideas. He’s so focused on safety and caution, he carries an umbrella at all times (for example). But when Dad has to leave town for a while on business, Wendy just might get to do a little exploring, if she can get around her babysitter.
This isn’t a challenge, as the sitter is too focused on her phone to notice pretty much anything. So, Wendy heads out to explore her hometown, Trubble Town. A fitting name, for her at least.
She tries to befriend a squirrel, Squirrely McSquirrel, but is out of nuts. So gives him a little bit of a Mooshy. A Mooshy is a dangerous concoction for a human, much less a squirrel, it’s a “steaming cup o’hot chocolate shoved chock-full with forty marshmallows.” The levels of hyperactivity that this induces in Squirrely can’t really be described, it can only be depicted in graphic terms, really. He also becomes pretty addicted to them—but the destruction wreaked was so great that no one is permitted to give him any.
It’s at this point that things get out of control. The chaos that ensues features a police officer driven by hatred of squirrels, a mayor who refuses to work, a strange town obsession with statues, a would-be nut-themed superhero, a vegetarian squid, civic-minded moles, a lot of dynamite, and too many other things to enumerate. It’s the kind of mad-cap pandemonium that appeals to the little kid in us all (especially the middle-grade target audience).
The big questions addressed are: will Squirrely stay out of trouble? Will Wendy be able to keep all this from her father? Will anyone learn anything?
Pearls Before Swine-Verse
On page 56, Larry the Crocodile appears as Squirrely’s lawyer. Planting this firmly in the same world as Pastis’s comic strip, Pearls Before Swine. But Larry’s the only character that I recognized, it’s not Pearls. The humor’s different than the comic—it’s suited for kids, with a different tone, and a different aim.
Art Style
If you’ve read Pearls, you’ll have noticed the slightly sloppier style, with bolder lines that Pastis uses when one of his characters is drawing—the art’s a lot like that (except for a panel or two at the end). But essentially, it looks a lot like Pearls without Pig and Rat, etc.
So, what did I think about Squirrel Do Bad?
Wendy learns a little about chaos theory and begins to see herself as the butterfly that starts the storm. Which is helpful and maybe a little unhealthy, too. Still, she learns the meaning of her father’s words before he left (see the opening quotation).
The storytelling reminds me of the kind of stories my kids would write/tell when they were little—something that starts off kind of fun and then gets stranger and stranger and stranger. This is both an observation and a warning for people who want structure and logic to their stories—that’s not going to be around.
It’s silly. There is some real sweetness to it. It’s weird. It’s a lot of fun. Pretty much what you’d expect. Give it a shot, or let your kid give it a shot.
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