by Moe Zilla

Created on: February 04, 2009

Sure, Little Toot could pull an ocean liner. But did the tugboat ever meet the Loch Ness monster?

Hardie Gramatky had already written four sequels to his 1939 classic, "Little Toot." The tugboat had visited England, Italy, the Mississippi River, and even San Francisco. In 1979, at the age of 72, Gramatky started writing and illustrating Little Toot's very last adventure. Unfortunately, he died before he was able to complete it. Over the next 10 years his wife and daughter finished the project, and the book was released in 1989, on the 50th anniversary of his original story.

"One night Little Toot had a dream," the book begins. "[H]e saw an enormous monster with large, bulging eyes and green scales." All the older boats jeer at the tugboat's dream - except his grandfather, who remembers the Loch Ness legend. So "hiding his fear, the small tugboat bravely set off." Little Toot has a child's personality, as in all this other books. The oceans of the world get crossed on a whim. But what will happen if he really does meet the Loch Ness monster?

The artwork changes its style from page to page, but there's some beautiful watercolors mixed in with the usual sketches by Hardie Gramatky. His wife Dorothea "did two illustrations based on his sketches," according to a note at the back of the book, "and she added color to several black-and-white drawings." And Gramatky's daughter Linda worked on the manuscript, "always thinking of this little tugboat as being an extension of my dad's personality."

Together they've come up with a story which stays true to the same themes of the original 1939 story. Little Toot finally reaches the lake - "a spooky place with rolling hills and deep, dark water..." Gramatky establishes that there's more boats on the lake, and these older boats are just as unfriendly towards the curious tugboat. They refuse to talk to him, and that night he's left alone on the dark lake, where he's frightened by shadows in the mist.

There's a wonderful sketch of the shadows seeming to take the shape of the Loch Ness monster. But the real Nessie is a sweet female monster with a soft voice. They swam together in the water, and "laughed and giggled at each other's silly antics." She describes a time when monsters USED to live near the lake, and says as the last of her kind, she's afraid of being found. Little Toot saves the day once again - and he's also made a new friend.

And when the older tugboats tease him, he smiles to himself, knowing that he has a very special secret.

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