Synopsis
"All you can do is be who you is."
Suzanne Marie Sabine Chicot Thibodeaux (called Sue for short) lives on a houseboat deep in Louisiana’s Atchafalaya Swamp. One lazy summer afternoon when the air grows heavier than a catfish's bath towel, a hurricane swoops Sue up — only to drop her like a hot patate into the swamp below. Sue finds herself nose-to-snout with a queen-sized, prickly-backed mama Alligator. Luckily, Mama Coco is no ordinary gator. She invites Sue into her family and teaches her all she knows. Sue tries hard to be an alligator; still, every once in a while, she recalls a wisp of a familiar song and begins to wonder: Who am I — a Gator or a Girl?
How this spirited heroine claims her identity and her name — Alligator Sue — makes a funny, affecting, and wise tale, illustrated with irresistible joie de vivre.
Publishers Weekly
From the author of Lapin Plays Possum comes the tale of a heroine who's half-gator, half-girl, set in Louisiana's Atchafalaya Swamp. After Sue becomes separated from her parents in a hurricane, she's raised in an alligator family ("Before long... Sue forgot to remember the days when she'd been a Girl"). She bonds with her scaly "brothers and sisters" and learns to "[snatch] at dragonflies" and "[crunch] on crawfish." The author does not shy away from the loss of Sue's human parents, but adds some comical contrasts, too, as when Sue tries to swim like her green siblings: "While her brothers and sisters could steer themselves through the water with their powerful notched tails, Sue's hind end just ended." Wilsdorf's (The Old Man Who Loved Cheese) loose black line and watercolor wash make the girl's acceptance into the reptilian family seem plausible; their interactions come across as affectionate and playful. Then one day, Sue and her alligator mother come upon the houseboat (damaged by the hurricane) where Sue was raised by her human parents, and Mama Coco tells her this is where she belongs ("It's time all you children start finding your own dens," she says). The author suffuses the text with plenty of swamp talk and Sue's father's favorite Cajun song ("O y yaie, mon coeur fait mal") becomes the book's leitmotif. When Sue discovers his old accordion in the dilapidated houseboat, his song releases her grief, and brings healing and even protection as she discovers a way to merge her two selves. A triumphant tale of finding one's own way in the world. Ages 5-8. (Aug.) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information.