I Am So Strong
Mario Ramos
Gecko Press

Self-opinionated and a bully, wolf decides to go for a walk in the woods and while so doing find out what others think of him. His first encounter is with a tiny rabbit. In response to wolf’s question, “Tell me, who do you think is the strongest around here?” the rabbit answers that it’s certainly Mister Wolf. This boosts the lupine’s ego (not that it needs any boosting) and he continues on this way. Little Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs and the seven dwarves respond in similar fashion.

Wolf decides it’s his best ever day but then he meets ‘a little toad of some sort.’ Could wolf be about to get his comeuppance at last?

At each encounter it appears that the wolf is thinking of something else in addition to polishing his ego: he addresses the little rabbit as ‘sugar bun’, Red Riding Hood is told she looks sweet enough to eat and called my little strawberry and the three little pigs are ‘little bacon bits’: is he creating a mental menu?

A thoroughly nasty bully finding someone who stands up to them calmly is a really satisfying occurrence, be the bullying physical, verbal or psychological and in this instance the little toad’ s use of calm reasoning completely surprises the wolf, pulling the rug from under his feet.

With Ramos’ s bold bright illustrations, repetitive textual pattern and almost exclusively conversational style narrative, this is a great book for dramatic reading aloud. (Imagine yourself with wolf’s super-scary teeth as you share it) I wonder what that little red bird watching the action from the safety of a tree branch is thinking: why not try asking your listeners.