“There Is a Tribe of Kids’’
By Lane Smith, Roaring Brook, $18.99, ages 5-9
Calling all Dr. Dolittles, big and small: This book is for you. The wild child at the heart of Lane Smith’s “There Is a Tribe of Kids’’ doesn’t talk to the animals, but throughout the book he does walk — and march and crawl and climb — with a slew of species as he tries to find his place in a crowd.
His efforts begin on the dedication page where he frolics with some kids — the kind with hooves. The mountain goats seem to accept the child with the handmade horns, but they leave him in the dust when they scamper up some steep rocks. Next the child matches steps with a colony of penguins, but when they take a plunge below he’s stranded on the ice above. Then there’s a turn of turtles. But their pace just lulls him to sleep.
Each new species the boy encounters brings with it the delightful vocabulary of animal plurality: a troop of monkeys, a crash of rhinos, a band of gorillas (making music, natch). But despite his leafy tunic and nifty booties the shape-shifting child can’t camouflage his humanity. He displays some impressive mimicry (please try this at home) but he doesn’t fit in with any of the animals.
He continues to explore through the night in a lonely section that follows the child as he wanders among lightning bugs and underneath the stars. There, in a heartbreaking moment, the child imagines holding hands with parents made of constellations.
Smith’s illustrations are all of a beautifully textured piece: The animals’ speckled bodies and the dappled patterns of the sky and foliage — rendered mostly in blues and greens and browns — evoke sunlight, filtered through trees and reflected off water. Despite the textures and colors that suggest the natural world, Lane has created a wild and far-out place. Not only are there musician gorillas, but there are also friendly whales, and curious jellyfish. And finally, at the end of a “trail of shells’’ there is a colony of feral children — “a tribe of kids.’’ Among the branches of an enormous tree kids wearing clothes made of leaves and flowers balance, swing, and play. It’s clear that the child belongs in this enchanting place. And, in the final pages, the warm and imaginative crowd welcomes the child home.
NICOLE LAMY
