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At a glance:

Pros:

• Fun, bouncy lines goes right along with the story
• beautiful, texture-ful illustrations
• great message about trying new things, making mistakes, and being different
• The main character is a PLATYPUS (that’s one of my favorite animals)

Cons:

• The rhyme scheme tripped me up a few times, but went more smoothly on a 2nd reading

I have a friend that likes to call me a platypus. She says I’m a little bit of this and that and I don’t quite fit into any one mold. I like to try a little bit of everything in life. So I can relate to the platypus in this book. Platypus sees other animals having fun jumping, climbing, and running so he decides to give it a whirl. But he’s not as good at the other animals.

Illustrations © Jackie Urbanovic   Text © Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen

The poetry has a rhythm that mimics the hopping and skipping done in the book, which I really enjoy. A few of the stanza’s meter/rhyme threw me off, but on a second read, it went smoothly.  The illustrations are great and have a lot of texture.

This would be a good book to read as a starting point to talk about being different and/or not being afraid to try new things. Most people aren’t successful on their first try, and Splatypus demonstrates how you sometimes just have to make mistakes and then pick yourself back up and try something new.