LITTLE SCOOT

Neither waves nor rain stays this stalwart tugboat from her duties.

The skies are cloudy when Little Scoot receives word that Big Barge has gotten stuck and needs her help. Wary of the weather, she nonetheless toots and scoots toward the ship and into the approaching storm. Though battered by waves and blown by the wind, she is nonetheless able at last to reach Big Barge. It takes all her strength, but soon she’s pulled him “out of sand, out of muck,” and to the harbor. Similar in name to Hardie Gramatky’s Little Toot and having the same job, Little Scoot, alas, lacks much of the charm of her predecessor. Anemic rhymes discuss the “stormiest storms” and “windy winds” while the story covers ground well trod by another classic, The Little Engine That Could, long ago. Little Scoot’s unsubtly cartoony face seems oddly matched with the sometimes lovely backgrounds and set scenes. There are times too when the text is at outright odds with the art, as when readers are told that Little Scoot offers Big Barge a whistle of goodbye only to see her clearly yelling it out in the accompanying picture. Young harbor fans will find little worth tooting about in this book even if they haven’t seen it all before. (This book was reviewed digitally with 9-by-18-inch double-page spreads viewed at 25.9% of actual size.)

Scoot on by.