Book Review: "Tom" by Tomie dePaola

Tomie dePaola makes a lot of books for kids. I must admit that we got a lot of his books coming through the house before I really started to get into him. His books are generally of high quality, but occasionally there are outstanding books that he makes. "Tom" is one of my all-time favorites!

I believe that many of Tomie dePaola's books are at least semi-autobiographical. This is one of those. Tommy is the main character in the book, a young boy. Tom is Tommy's grandfather. Since Tommy is named after Tom, they share a special bond. Tom likes to act childish and play around with Tommy. Tom is clearly a cool grandfather.

But the coolest thing is "garunge-arunge-a"! Tom is a butcher. He gets chickens whole and then has to cut them down to sellable things. He starts by cutting off the chicken's head and feet. He has Tommy plant the chicken head to try to grow a chicken bush. That was funny! But then he gives Tommy the chicken feet, and shows him that if you pull the tendons, the claws open and close.

Tommy is a bright kid, and washes the feet and brings them to school. Now I normally don't like school showing up in books, but I like it here. Tommy hides his hands, and operates the claws, using them to scare all the girls at school. As he jumps out from behind a bush, making the claws open and close, he yells "Garunge-arunge-a" at his victims. This had me rolling on the floor for days, and is a regular attack Boden pulls on me, now. Eventually Tommy garunge-arunge-a's a teacher and is sent to the principal's office, where his claws are cruelly confiscated. But the awesomeness has already been done.

That combines with dePaola's unique drawings and great story telling to make this book a keeper. We check it out over and over again from the library, and really ought to buy it! I also like the way that this book, like most of dePaola's is just the right readability - not too long, and not too short. You aren't wishing it was done halfway through, and at the same time, you're fully satisfied at the end of the book.

I rate this book "highly recommended".