Mike Curato, Little Elliot Big Family, Five Mile Press, Oct 2015, 36pp., $19.95 (hbk), ISBN: 9781760068455
Little Elliot the spotted elephant is lonely when his friend Mouse leaves for his big family reunion. On his walk through New York he sees many different types of family groups: fathers and daughters, sisters, mothers and sons, brothers playing in the street and so on. Elliot wonders what it would be like to have a relative. He meets Mouse who has come looking for him because, even though Mouse has plenty of relatives, Mouse needs Little Elliot. Together they go back to the reunion where Elliot is accepted as part of the big rambunctious mouse family.
This charming picture book about friendship, family and acceptance is told in muted colours. The greys, browns and soft greens give the book a nostalgic fifties atmosphere. Little Elliot wakes up to a ‘bright winter day’ but the whole page is quite dark although well composed. In fact every page is rather dark, soft and muted. The effect is to distance the reader from the characters on the page, which counters the timeless appeal of the universal themes. Little Elliot is an appealling character himself, but he lacks punch. Children used to bright colours may be lukewarm about him.
Reviewed by Mia Macrossan