Synopsis
Roly Poly, very small, doesn't like new things at all.
Meet Roly Poly Pangolin—a little pangolin who'd rather stick close to his mama instead of facing anything unfamiliar. Whether it's a line of ants, a friendly monkey, or a loud noise, Roly Poly runs the other way. Then he hears something that really scares him. So he does what all pangolins do when they're frightened—he rolls up into a tiny ball. But Roly Poly is surprised when he finally peeks out, because another ball is peeking back . . . it's a small pangolin just like him!
Anna Dewdney has created another irresistible character to reassure children about the world around them.
Publishers Weekly
As in her Llama Llama books, Dewdney again taps into common toddler insecurities. This story stars Roly Poly, a young pangolin (a scaly, endangered mammal) who is very timid when it comes to the outside world (“Roly Poly, very small,/ doesn't like new things at all”). After running away from a furry animal who wants to play, he is frightened by a “teeny tiny” voice calling to him, and accidentally discovers pangolins' trademark defense mechanism. He trips and rolls himself into a ball for protection as he careens down a hill (“The world's outside/ but he's within—/ Roly Poly Pangolin”). Peeking out, however, he spies another small pangolin, and suddenly he's “not so frightened, after all,” as he frolics with his new friend and the friendly monkeylike creature who appeared earlier. Dewdney's artwork, rendered on rough-textured canvas, feels less polished than her earlier books, but it readily transmits her protagonist's emotions. The story retains Dewdney's familiar rhyming couplets, and while this hero—perhaps by nature of his timidity—lacks some of Llama Llama's zip, his nervousness will be widely recognizable to readers. Ages 2-up. (Mar.)