Title: Little Leaf
Author: Paul Sauvola
Publisher: XlibrisUS
ISBN: 978-1-5434-3261-9
Genre: Juvenile Fiction
Reviewed by: Beth Adams

Read Book Review

Within the powerful imagination of children, virtually anything is possible. So why not a talking leaf? Surely that can be within the bounds of imagination, especially when coaxed along by the story titled Little Leaf by author Paul Sauvola.

This fanciful story begins with a leaf being blown helplessly in the wind of an approaching storm and crying out for help. Overheard by a pelican named Stoogie, the leaf is rescued and placed within the bird’s feathers as Stoogie heads for a safe haven from the approaching inclement weather. So starts their friendship as the two personified characters embark on a journey of adventure, suspense, heroism and create a life-long bond.

Along the way the two meet up with a variety of comical animal friends including: Chompers, a young colt with buck teeth; Brains who was named out of sarcasm because he’s a dumb groundhog; Stretch, an ostrich, and others such as Chug and Cotton. Cotton, named for her cottontail seems to take on the maternal role of caring for the group the most, at times making hot coco and her yummy fresh vanilla cream cake. Sandwiches and jerky are prepared for their journey through the cold and icy mountains which ultimately caused the group to get separated, and they needed to search for each other. This part of the book reminded me of the trek within the movie Ice Age as the group needed to stick together for survival. There are times when the need to build a fire becomes a team effort, and everyone comes together to solve the freezing cold problem. This shows good morals and values to children as there are times everyone needs the help and participation of others to accomplish a mutually rewarding goal.

Emerging from the cold and wintery mountains brings this group of characters next to a rain forest deep within a jungle. There they meet up with Hip, Hip-Hop, Hip-Hop the hippopotamus, called just Hip-Hop for short. As readers become familiar with the idiosyncrasies of each of the characters, such as Stoogie being awkward when it comes to landing, smiles are many among the group and this story continues to warm the hearts of the reading audience.

In the version of the electronic book I read, at the end were a bunch of illustrations of the characters drawn by Yvonne Sauvola, which are quite revealing into the personalities of the animals and the little leaf. I would have liked to have seen these “guys” as they were introduced or perhaps used as a storyboard layout with regards to the adventure. Yet the story’s narration has a comforting and humorous pace, with kindness and mutual respect being brought to the forefront of the relationships of very dissimilar animals. So in totality Little Leaf is a book of acceptance of others no matter what they look like. After all, they accepted the little leaf into their group, as he accepted them into his.