Small Walt and Mo the Tow
Author: Elizabeth Verdick
Illustrator: Marc Rosenthal
Simon & Schuster/​Paula Wiseman Books
30 October 2018
40 pages

This month’s PB review is by Ryan G. Van Cleave (#1 snowplow aficionado at Only Picture Books) and Ringling College of Art and Design Illustration Professor (and frequent OPB helper-​outter) David C. Gardner.

–Ryan’s Review of the Writing–

Small Walt and Mo the Tow is the sequel to the 2017 book Small Walt, which was a delight. This new title has a simple plot–a “bitter blizzard” has come so Gus (the driver) and Walt are off to clear the roads with “a big load of ice-​melting salt.” When a little green car slides off a forest road and FWUMPs into a ditch, Walt wants to use his scoop to save the day, but Gus says, “Now, now. Plows only scoop snow.”

It’s Mo the Tow to the rescue, along with Mo’s driver Sue, who wears a bright blue coat. Only Mo’s tires can’t get a grip of the slick ice, so Walt does his part to plow the snow and use his spreader to drop salt with a “switch-​twist, switch-​twist.” And from that moment on, new friendships are made, and the little green car is rescued at last.

The vehicles have a good deal of personality, which is certainly part of the fun. Yet what young readers might respond best to is the attention to sound, both in the alliteration (“swish the slush” etc.) as well as the many instances of onomatopoeia (“Whumpa-​thumpa-​bumpa-​bump!” and “Rugga-​brum-​brum, HUMMAROOOM!”).

This is a sweet story of friendship and kindness. If you liked Small Walt, then this sequel likely won’t disappoint you.

4 out of 5 pencils

– David’s Review of the Illustrations–

This sequel starts with a long view of the town, like a child’s eye view of a toy village, then the pictures swoop in to immerse us in the action. And it is all action, essentially a narrative of pulling a stuck car out of the snow. 

Rosenthal’s pictures border on crude, done in what looks to be heavy-​colored pencil or thick crayon. (I will confess I have always been skeptical of the notion that children want to look at pictures that look like something they might create themselves.) Rosenthal’s simple illustrations for the Small Walt books have been rightly compared to Virginia Lee Burton’s classic books like The Little House (1942), Mike Mulligan and His Steam Shovel (1939), and especially Katy and the Big Snow (1943), and they do share that childlike quality and charm. Burton worked in this medium too, but her work was more refined, like fine miniatures, starting with soft watercolor washes, then layering in colored pencil with attention to tiny details.

The looseness here is not necessarily a weakness, though; it gives the book a contemporary feel. Rosenthal has a wide-​ranging portfolio as an illustrator for magazines, advertising, and books, and his style consistently pays homage to illustration styles of the past, always with a clever twist so that we never forget his work is of-the-moment.

And this book is no different.

Rosenthal is, in a sense, playing jazz, not Beethoven. That freshness helps to convey the immediacy of the story for its very young audience. The illustrations also amp up the charm considerably, giving the book a hip coolness without being cynical, and never tipping over in the other direction into easy, sappy cuteness.

3 out of 5 crayons

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