cover image Woolly and Me

Woolly and Me

Quentin Gréban. Tilbury House, $16.95 (32p) ISBN 978-0-88448-636-7

A girl with a blonde bob haircut describes life with her pet mammoth, Woolly, in this gentle tale from Belgian author-illustrator Gréban. Physical comedy drives the story, usually driven by Woolly’s enormous presence: out on a walk, Woolly (dutifully wearing his leash) peers down at an elderly woman taking her dog out. “He loves riding in the car,” the girl explains on the next page. “It helps to have a convertible.” The Mini-style vehicle tilts with the effort it takes for Woolly to climb in through the open roof, and most of his body remains outside the car as they take off down the road. Gréban’s images are traced in delicate pencil and colored in pale but rich shades of paint—the girl and mammoth are the focus of every spread, whether they are wearing matching pink tutus in ballet class or testing the load-bearing capacity of her bike. The closing revelation that Woolly is a stuffed toy (“Some people might not think he’s real...”) only goes to show how large a presence, sometimes literally, a treasured stuffed pal can have in a child’s imaginative life. Ages 4–7. (Jan.) Correction: An earlier version of this review misspelled the author's last name.