The ocelot and the crab by Shaun Micallef. Illus. by Rebel Challenger
The speedy ocelot loves to run. And what is an ocelot, readers may ask. The opening pages give an outline of what he is and what he is not, presented in four line rhyming stanzas, which beg the readers to predict the rhyming word. He is compared with a panther, and a tiger, a cat and a cheetah, leopard and a jaguar, all designed for readers to check out the differences, and predict the attributes he does have.
His competitor is a crab, lured by the offer of millions in gold and doubloons to the winner.
The readers may think that the race is unfair given the different competitors, but we are told, the ocelot has no sense of direction. So what could possibly go wrong?
While the crab scuttles forward, its goal a huge walk away, the ocelot becomes hopelessly lost and travels the world in search of his route. So the reader gets to see Stonehenge, the Eiffel Tower, the Sphinx, Hadrian’s Wall, Kolkata, Prague and the sands of Sahara. While seeing these sights, the crab on the other hand is diligently walking, taking the day to walk about a mile, his friends seeing that at this pace the course will take him a month.
Meanwhile the ocelot has flagged down a police car to ask directions, and they cordially take him to Mount Olaf, the end of the race, where he is greeted wildly by his fans. Even though he has technically won, things happen to make things fairer, and all is resolved by the last page.
The rhyming stanzas carry the story beautifully, with some devious and ingenious rhyme that will make kids laugh.
And the moral of the tale comes as a twist at the end. With nods to Aesop’s Tortoise and the hare, this tale is different in that the faster animal uses trickery to win and is found out, while the crab just does what he always does, scuttling along at his own pace.
With illustrations to capture the imagination of the readers, humour abounds on each page. The obvious differences between the competitors is a source of hilarity, and reveal the scrapes they get into, sure to bring smiles to all faces. Using pencil and digital enhancement, Challenger is able to pick out the animals’ attributes with ease, her love of flora and fauna shining through.
This is a great read aloud, begging children to predict and join in, and to be borrowed and read for pleasure at home or at school, with lots of delicious words to stretch the imagination. I loved coming across rhymes that were different from what I expected, and I loved the maps on the endpapers giving a place in which the race is set. And the crab on the cover reading a map, predicts the fun to be had opening the pages of the book.
Themes: Race, Competition, Ocelot, Crabs, Humour.
Fran Knight