In Praise of Polo

There is the way that I would like to choose books for my children: this method involves poring over Horn Book and School Library Journal reviews, browsing recommended lists from the American Library Association and the Cooperative Children's Book Center, and perusing such authoritatively named guides as Babies Need Books. Then there is the reality, which is that library visits tend to happen on the fly, in the rare and magical moment that everyone is feeling well-fed and not tired and not in need of a long digging session in the sandbox and not likely to want to sing verses of "Little Boxes" at the top of his or her lungs for one or two hours on end. Once we get there, not surprisingly, these precious library visits tend to be conducted with the speed and grace of an episode of "Supermarket Sweep." Usually we're so relieved just to have made it past the siren call of apple juice and muffins in the lobby snack bar that our book selection technique involves a general grabbing of any book that appears to have bright colors and the right proportion of words to a page.

Thank goodness, then, that our public library is staffed by marvelous people who do all that aforementioned browsing, pondering and perusing for us, and that the contents of our book basket, usually chosen nearly at random, tend to have a success rate of at least 50%. A recent favorite, previously totally unknown to us, is the fabulous Polo: The Runaway Book. (Like Zoo-ology, also reprinted for the U.S. market by Roaring Brook Press.) This book is really a graphic novel telling, in sequential pictures and only two words ("My book!"), the story of a dog (assisted by a cotton-candy-selling rhino, knitting penguin, dirigible-flying chicken, and pig princess, among many others) trying to retrieve his book from a glowing alien dot. What's spectacular is not just the visual ingenuity evident from that brief plot description, but also the good-heartedness of all of Polo's adventures. We are all in favor of any book that ends with a party, especially when that party affirms both the pleasure of reading as a solitary occupation as well as the greater general enjoyment that comes from sharing our favorite books with all our friends.

P.S. It's possible that this book will cause you too to have magical adventures. Viz.: We took the book to a Radisson in Kansas City, not perhaps the most fairy-tale of locations. When we came out from the lobby the next morning, though, the street was filled with Shriners from all over Missouri, many of them dressed in full clown regalia and riding in their signature tiny cars. Older Kid and Younger Kid stood and gaped and gaped some more, amazed at the possibilities hidden in any given concrete street.