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Little Beauty (2010)

by Anthony Browne(Favorite Author)

3.96 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

1406308668 (ISBN13: 9781406308662)

languge

English

genre

Middle Grade & Children's

publisher

Candlewick

review 1: This books was an endearing, loving story that teaches friendship and love. There was a gorilla who was not normal. He got everything he wanted but he signed to his keepers that he wanted a friend. Therefore they brought him a cute kitten named Beauty. You can see their bond immediately. You see this huge gorilla and tiny kitten doing everything together. When they slept or played together their colors blended. One day they watched a "King Kong" movie together and since the gorilla didn't like that movie he got angry and broke the television. When the keepers came in to see what the gorilla had done they decided to take Beauty away from the angry gorilla. The kitten came up with something fast and signed to the keepers that he broke it. He didn't want to be taken... more away from his friend. The keepers laughed at Beauty's response and left him there and they lived "happily ever after". The book was very eyecatching. The dust jacket has a huge sweet looking gorilla with a sweet kitten sitting on his head. The end pages have this dull colored jungle of flowers and vines. I could not tell what the color meant but I believe since the gorilla didn't live in the jungle the keepers were trying to somehow bring images of the jungle to him. In the story the same vines and flowers are a little darker but still not colorful. Most pages are full bleed pages that brings you into the story as if you are there. He uses color to set the mood like when the gorilla was angry the entire page was red. At the beginning of the book there is a white and a soft red rose. The gorilla's face is in the soft red rose and Beauty's face is in the white rose. I believe that red is for unpredictable and danger and white is for innocent and pure. I would definitely recommend it to everyone.
review 2: The eyes! During my first read of this book all I could focus on was the eyes of each character. On the first double page spread the gorilla grabbed my attention and I felt like I was observing him at the zoo watching television. The eyes (as does the rest of the photo, but more over the eyes) have so much detail. They are a realistic color of brown, they remind me of my eye color when the light hits them. As I turned the page I got an even better look at the lighting of his eyes and the detail Anthony puts into his fur/hair. On the second read I focused less on the eyes and more on the background. I wondered why he would use a paisley print for the background rather than the bars that I, as the reader, would expect to see when referring to an animal that lives in a zoo. Throughout the story there were two main backgrounds that he used one of which was white and the other was floral/paisley. When he (the gorilla) was happy and enjoying the company of his friend that spread/part of the story was told on white paper. When he was upset or sad it was told using the floral/paisley print background (minus the time he smashed the television, which was depicted on a red background). I wondered the significance of having nothing in the background, could it be that he was saying that nothing else mattered? That is how I took it, the gorilla’s sole focus was on the cat and vice versa. This was such a touching story, I had to read it at least 3 times before I was willing to put it down. It is a must read and I will be sharing it with everyone I know! Thanks Anthony Browne. less

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