Title: Walter and Mike Get Their Own Fun Park Pool to Play In
Author: Kathleen Morrissey
Publisher: TopLink Publishing
ISBN: 978-1970066258
Genre: Illustrated Children’s Book
Pages: 88
Reviewed by: Beth Adams
Pacific Book Review
Author Kathleen Morrissey has written a quintessential illustrated children’s book about a family of personified alligators living next to a water park in Florida. Walter and Mike Get Their Own Fun Park Pool to Play In introduce readers to Walter and Mike, two young alligators with curiosity and an adventurous spirit.
Not being able to go to sleep one evening due to the prior excitement of seeing a fireworks display, the two young reptiles hear the frolicking of children playing in a water theme park nearby. Ignoring the risk and the better judgement of their sister Cecilia, they embark on a journey to see just what is going on. When they reach the edge of the park, the two see children frolicking in the water park, going down slides – when all of a sudden they are spotted by some children. The kids, not knowing what to do about these alligators because they know alligators are dangerous, they call over their Dad, he calls Animal Control, and before you know it Walter and Mike are caged off to a holding area. Remorseful of their circumstances, the two alligators wonder if they’ll ever get to see their family again.
As fate would have it, the park just built a new animal exhibit addition to their water park, and the two are placed in their own area of the park in pools with waterfalls, slides and ponds just like they wished they could play in. Next, they are reunited with their family when the animal control staff captures the other alligators. This brings together a theme; be careful of what you wish for – you just may get it!
The children who first found Walter and Mike go to visit them in the new animal park. Looking at the reptiles through Plexiglas windows swimming and having fun, the kids wish they could join them. This irony of having the kids wanting to join the alligators, when at first the alligators wanted to join the kids, makes for a lesson to all readers which can be interpreted in many ways.
The illustrations need mentioning, as they are perfectly drawn to convey the storyline, and the accompanying text makes this a wonderful children’s book. Kathleen Morrissey ends with an announcement of her second adventure titled Cecilia Discovers valuable Treasure. But don’t wait for the next book to come out – grab your copy of Walter and Mike Get Their Own Fun Park Pool to Play In today! See you later, alligators!
