School Library Journal Review
PreS-Gr 2-Reminiscent of fellow bear Pooh's love for honey is Norris's love for plorringes. For that "sun-kissed, soft-as-cotton candy" delicacy, he patiently waits under the plorringe tree for the fruit to ripen. Tulip the raccoon and Violet the mouse, far less serene, wait on a branch. Soon the two reach out to touch the fruit and to take a lick, and "WHOMP!"-the luscious treat wallops Norris on the head. "The plorringe was his!" Here, readers will roar with mirth. The silkscreened tree and its leaves anchor the wispiness of the watercolor and India ink creatures done in layers of broad brushstokes against white backgrounds. The varied and inventive spreads show animals with an array of emotions, as well as movement toward camaraderie. Norris is wise, but "he was also kind." The last illustration is on a single page: having shared the plorringe, Norris, Tulip, and Violet sit so close that they appear to be one unit-friends. This is an exquisite choice for storytimes.-Sara Lissa Paulson, American Sign Language and English Lower School PS 347, New York City (c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Publisher's Weekly Review
"[B]eing a wise bear, Norris knew that plorringes were the best fruit of all." Norris also knows that good things are worth waiting for, so he rests under the plorringe tree in the perfect spot to acquire the globular fruit when it falls. But Norris isn't the only one with an interest in the juicy treat: mouse Violet and raccoon Tulip scamper up the plorringe tree. They sniff, listen to, and hug the plorringe, and they are about to have a lick when it falls off the tree, landing with a "whomp!" on Norris's head. Readers who recognize Norris's teddy bear nature in his pensive gaze and lumbering snooze beneath the tree won't be surprised when, without hesitation, he carefully doles out sections of the "delicious, sun-kissed, soft-as-cotton-candy plorringe" to Violet and Tulip ("Norris was wise. And he was also kind"), who become his friends. Rayner's scraggly ink-outlined animals, colored with bold blocks of paint, easily communicate a traveled but salient lesson about patience and generosity-although readers may be dismayed to find no plorringes in stock at the grocery store. Ages 3-5. (Mar.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
