by Moe Zilla

Created on: May 28, 2010

The real star of "Plantzilla" is its illustrator, David Catrow. (One reviewer called his work "wonderfully weird...") Catrow fills his pencil/watercolor drawings with garish colors, using strange purples and greens for shadows. The first page opens with a crazy red spiral staircase, and at the top sits a spiky-haired little boy - writing a letter to ask permission to bring home his favorite plant for the summer, Plantzilla...

In fact, the entire story is told in the form of letters, giving it more text than usual for a children's pictuer book. The little boy's name is Mortimer Henryson, and his letter is written to the science teacher at the Strewbrick's Day School, who sends a response back on the book's third page. (Since it's summer vacation, the teacher seen lying in a hammock between two palm trees on a beach in Hawaii!) Yes, the little boy can take Plantzilla home for the summer, he replies, and the book's fourth page is the student's thank-you letter back to his teacher.

"The best news of all is that Plantzilla is beginning to eat real food, mostly meat...."

You could've guessed this was coming just from the title of Jerdine Nolen's book. But Catrow's illustrations make it clear, showing the scraggly plant reaching out its vine to lift up a hot dog. (At the edge of the drawing, there's a ketchup-red hamburger that's also missing one big bite.) Little Mortimer stands proudly at the edge of the drawing, his eyes closed proudly as he scribbles on a clipboard. He's weighing the plant on a scale called the Pound-o-Tron - but by the book's next illustration, the plant's gotten even bigger...

And it's combing the boy's hair for him!

It's a weird way to tell a story, since the boy is oblivious to just how extraordinary his plant has become. But that creates a humorous contrast for the wild scenes in the book's pictures, as the plant keeps getting bigger and bigger.  Anything can happen in Catrow's illustrations, and soon the family's breakfast nook is filled with lots of helpful little vines. But in the next illustration, the police have been summoned, since the family's prize chihuahua has mysteriously gone missing.

This book may pose some trouble for beginning readers, since they'll have to know how to read cursive. But the story also takes a disturbing twist, since soon the boy's parents are writing the science teacher - explaining that the plant can now move on it's own! It's not clear if it's building up to a happy ending or a scary one - but at last, the missing chihuahua returns. And in the end, the plant turns out to be a welcome addition to the family.

And the parents admit in a letter to the science teacher that "When you give a living thing love, you never know where it will lead."

Learn more about this author, Moe Zilla.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.