Love, Z by Jessie Sima

The cover of this book really caught my eye. As you can see there are seven robots and a sailor cat. Look closely and you can see each robot has a letter - ALMFYI and Z. The meaning of this is revealed at the end and it gave me a huge smile.

Little Z is out exploring when he stumbles on a bottle and yes inside the bottle is a message. The message is smudgy but Z can read - "Love, Beatrice". 

"The young robot did not know what 'love' meant or who 'Beatrice' was, but they felt important."

No one in the robot family can help with these questions so Z heads off in search of answers and it is Captain Cat on the cover who helps him/her/them on the way. You might think of a book like Wilfrid Gordon McDonald Partridge - various people and animals and children supply answers but all of this is so confusing. 

Love is butterflies. Love is sweaters. Love is lawn gnomes. Love is a million puppies. Love is snowflakes on my tongue.

Captain Cat and Z continue their voyage and eventually they chance upon a small island. It is a wonderful moment when a kindly lady opens the door to her small cottage and she tells the travellers her name is Beatrice! Z and Beatrice talk about love. Love is warm, cozy, safe and you will know it when you feel it. But Z is still confused until the final scene ...

There is some controversy about Jessie Sima here in NSW because she is the author of Spencer's new Pet a book that the NSW English unit writers have featured for ES1 or Kindergarten. That should be okay I guess but here in Australia this US picture book - Spencer's New Pet is very expensive and while it is a fun example of a wordless book, especially I would suggest for a preschool aged child, there are so many other books teachers could use to fulfil the syllabus outcomes. The problem comes when some teachers, many new to the profession, feel unable to alter or modify a unit of work even though, at this stage, these units are just suggestions - they are not mandatory. Meanwhile cash strapped schools and schools with small library budgets are struggling to purchase this book like Spencer's New Pet especially when some schools demand multiple copies. I've seen Spencer's New Pet listed between AUS$30 and AUS$43. Anyway all of that to one side I did enjoy Love, Z. 

Here is the web site for Jessie Sima with a list of all her books.