Terrific!

When five animal friends—and one cunning snake—brainstorm ideas about something absolutely terrific to do, they learn about friendship, cooperation, and compromise. Terrific! is an irresistible choice for young readers and anyone who’s ever spent an afternoon just waiting for that terrific idea to come along.

Reviews

“Five animal friends seek an activity they’ll all enjoy, but it’s a challenge. . . . Gilmore combines sinuous animal contours and sandy tints into cool, graceful spreads that belie the drama to come. . . . the heroic group, having triumphed over danger, shares a proud, Three Musketeers–like air, bringing relieved readers into their number in a story that’s not for the faint of heart.” — Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Five friends—Turtle, Badger, Anteater, Mandrill, and Owl—want to do something together . . . but finding an activity they can all enjoy is not easy. . . . Gilmore’s palette . . . is subdued and light, and . . . her characters fill the page in a way that is lively and disarming. . . . Expressive, personable, and somehow hilarious. . . . Pretty terrific, indeed, and visually marvelous.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)“Five disparate friends—an anteater, mandrill, badger, owl, and turtle—decide that they need an activity. But not just any old activity! It needs to be terrific. . . . Gilmore’s unusual story is playfully dark and very funny, with stylized illustrations, rendered in watercolor and pens, fabulously detailed and expressive. The net result is a book that is silly and scary and—you guessed it—absolutely terrific.” — Booklist (starred review)“Five friends—Turtle, Anteater, Badger, Mandrill, and Owl—try to decide on a ‘terrific’ activity to do together. Each suggests something that they enjoy themselves but that, when tried by the whole group, is not a success. . . . Lush, detailed illustrations, done in watercolor and pen and ink in a muted palette of greens, browns, and grays, invite readers close to the page to focus on each character’s facial expressions and body language.” — Horn Book Magazine