Elliot is very proper and well-mannered--so much so that he even wears a tux. It's when he goes to the aquarium with his father that he finds the animal that best suits him: penguins. When he asks his father if he can have a penguin, his father says yes and gives him $20 to purchase a stuffed penguin. Elliot makes his way back to the penguins, climbs over the fence, wades through the water, picks up the smallest penguin, puts it in his backpack, and brings it home. But how will he care for it, and what will happen when his father finds out?
This is such a fantastic combination of illustration and text. Buzzeo has left room in her spare text for Small to fill in moments with humorous illustrations and details, maximizing the potential for laughs. With one or two lines, Buzzeo tells us everything we need to know about Elliot ("a very proper young man," his thought that the aquarium means "kids, masses of noisy kids"). Add to that Small's illustration of him standing very straight, wearing a tux, a sideways look toward the reader, with perfect placement and use of negative space (see below). The timing is just right, and there are lots of wonderful little details (I love the girl running down the hall in horror with a crab attached to her finger). There are some visual motifs that recur throughout, including the check pattern (on the walls, a suit, the floors, a bedspread, and the endpapers). And the ending is a fabulous final page surprise, that will make you realize how many details were there that you didn't even notice the first time around.
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