OUR ANIMAL NEIGHBORS

A picture book about compassion for the animals that share the planet.

The story starts with a double-page spread showing a diversity of humans all jumbled together facing readers, relaying the idea that humans come in different shapes, sizes, and colors (and dispositions and beliefs) yet are all neighbors, planetarily speaking. The page turn then extends this idea to the diversity of animals and, not unpredictably, shows a double-page spread of a jumble of different animals facing readers. In the same back-and-forth vein, the story continues by pointing out that humans use “intelligence” to survive while animals have different, other skills to help them—an off-key anthropocentric viewpoint that assumes animals aren’t intelligent. This off-key note continues with a confusing illustration that attempts to highlight animals’ and humans’ “wildly different likes and needs,” wherein humans are shown using aids to accomplish what animals do naturally. But, in a pivot, it seems we don’t have such “wildly different likes and needs” after all, since the story concludes, “you have more in common with your neighbors than you think,” and lists those common needs: “food and water…clean air and shelter…family and friendship,” among others. The book’s intention is good-hearted, but the execution is messy, and that extends to many of the illustrations, which are flat in their colors and unnuanced in their line and interpretation. The backmatter unsubtly advocates for vegetarianism.

Simplistic and heavy-handed.