August 11, 2003
Marvin the sheep certainly seems hefty enough—he resembles a plump, dimpled marshmallow—and his friend Molly assures him that "I like you as you are." But Marvin believes he is too small to "run as fast or jump as high as the other sheep" and decides to eat his way into becoming an Alpha mutton. His gustatory diligence pays off quickly, and soon he's making the other sheep look like fleecy golf balls. But Marvin isn't satisfied. "Just a little bit more," he says, a theme (or variation thereof) that becomes the book's refrain. He eats the entire meadow (including the trees); he stands in the ocean at the earth's curvature and blithely consumes a country as if it were a patch of lawn; and finally, he "ate the world!" (using the moon as a stepladder). Theobald makes a promising debut here. Working in stylized shapes and lines and using a bright, limited palette, he creates ostensibly serene, deadpan renderings that make Marvin's creature-feature metamorphosis all the funnier. Theobald understands his audience's taste for expulsive humor, and draws upon the motivating forces of both loneliness and regurgitation ("Baaaaaa!" says Marvin, as he spews the Eiffel Tower, the Statue of Liberty and other landmarks) to restore the natural order. Ages 3-5.