Pomelo Begins to Grow

Pomelo, a pink erasure of an elephant with an extremely long and expressive trunk, is surprised to find a familiar dandelion looking small. Wonder of wonders, he's getting bigger! His growth spurt brings with it a lot of questions. To wit...

* Is he too big for his world?
* What if he doesn't grow equally all over?
* Does everyone grow at the same speed?
* Will he have to stop clowning around?
* Does growing up mean growing old?

Pomelo ponders these and other questions as he wanders through the pages of this unusual picture book. Without a traditional storyline, certain readers may chafe at Pomelo's philosophical musings, but many more will no doubt discover that his worries and concerns match their own. The whimsical, dream-like illustrations alternate between Pomelo wandering in a garden setting overflowing with produce, insects, snails and other friendly creatures and surreal images of his thoughts, such as a cutaway that shows an assembly plant inside him. By the end, Pomelo realizes that growing brings with it the joy of new experiences as well as responsibilities. And he's okay with that.

The book originally was published in France and was translated. The copyeditor in me did notice a typo in: "There's no question, he want's to know more." ("want's" should be "wants"). But hopefully that will be corrected in the next edition.

Pomelo Begins to Grow
by Ramona Badescu
illustrations by Benjamin Chaud
Enchanted Lion Books, 48 pages
Published: August 2011