I am excited over the title I Am Stuck by Julia Mills. Not for the possible reasons you would think (the big one is BEST BOOK EVER), but for the one that is small. I liked it. It is a book about being stuck. Or actually, a turtle who is stuck. And while others try to give advice, it, well, does not help. It is not until the possum comes along and what they do not do, that is the most helpful of them all (well that and mentioning their butt). Now the other animals were trying to be helpful, and were well meaning, but wagging your tail might help a kangaroo, but a turtle might not be able to use theirs to help them get unstuck.
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And I do not like it because it is a “how to get unstuck book” but because there is a possum in it, and they said butt. (You know I am a 10-year-old-boy disguised as a somewhat functioning adult). Yes, I liked it for the surface value. I liked it because it was silly (unfortunately when the turtle takes the armadillo’s advice of rolling into a ball, it is not the most successful attempt, but somewhat funny: see the googling, swirling eyes of turtle). Yet, you can take it as a more serious story of stopping, breathing, looking around, taking stock of life and the situation.
There are also the illustrations of Mills to like. They are simple, with little to no details, but what is there is important (such as the dark cloud that signals rain, or the rain drops on the possum, or the “sick eyes” of the turtle). They are there to highlight the characters and to be enjoyable.
Due late September 2023, read via an online reader copy.
