This story for three-to-seven-year-old children charmingly illustrates how much we can benefit from mutual support. When three denizens of the woods — Fox, Mouse, and Crow — can't find enough to eat during the winter, they turn to squirrel for help. But Squirrel protests that what he has stored is barely enough for him and "Squirrels will be squirrels — we are not willing to share."
Hungry himself, he is therefore mortified to realize that he can't find his food stashes and must ask for help from these same creatures he turned away. But after his previous treatment of them, will they be willing to strike a deal?
German visual artist Daniela Kulot, the story's author and illustrator, brings us the perfect balance of stark forest scenes and adorable characters. Without seeing the book in its original German, we can't say whose brilliance shines through most brightly here: that of Kulot or the translator, Elisabeth Lauffer. We suspect both, upon reading sentences like these:
"Mouse crawls from her hole and looks around. Gosh-double-deer-dung-darn-it, she is so hungry!" and
"As for Squirrel? Holy hazelnuts, he is so hungry!"
The ending, which we won't give away, is as satisfying as a meal to end a winter fast. Kulot could not have chosen a better time in history to remind us all that meeting the needs of others can be our surest protection against our worst enemy: our own self-centeredness.
