This is the story of a house . . . and of the house-proud bunny who moves in and calls it home . . . and of the largehearted little snail who lives on the outside and keeps everything together (with a bit of help from the Wee people). As touching as it is hilarious, Vivian Walsh's story is perfectly matched by J.otto Seibold's spectacular art. Together they have created a strikingly original tale as amusing as it is heartfelt.
Amazon.com Review
Vivian Walsh and J. otto Seibold (Olive, the Other Reindeer, Penguin Dreams) create another winning, whimsical world in Gluey: A Snail Tale. The story begins when a bunny named Celerina finds a beautiful, empty house and moves right in. Little does she know, a snail named Gluey lives there, too, fixing all the house's cracks as carpenter snails like to do. One day, Celerina breaks a vase! Gluey tells her he could fix it, but his voice is so soft, she can't hear him. That night, he slowly repairs her vase. As this sort of gluey alchemy continues to happen, Celerina becomes more and more convinced her house is magic. She decides to have a tea party to prove to her skeptical friends that dishes would be repaired before their very eyes in her enchanted house! Of course, when the party derails into a plate-breaking free-for-all, the house itself collapses into pieces. Seibold's sophisticated, retro, stylized illustrations and color palette are no less than fantastic, and Gluey is perhaps the cutest children's book snail of all time. Children will be crushed by the injustice Celerina shows Gluey, then overjoyed at the end when they become friends. (Ages 5 and older) --Karin Snelson
