Woodchuck Nation

Celebrates the twenty-fifth anniversary of Woodstock with Zal and Macra-May and their memories of Jerry Garseagull, Joe Cockatoo, and Rabbit Shankar, in a totally groovy, nostalgic storybook.

Grade 1-3-While Zal and May wait with their three children for a reunion with a friend from their youth, they recount their participation in the gathering at the Woodchuck Festival 25 years ago. The story describes their journey to the celebration of "Paws and Love," where rock stars such as Jimi Hendrake and Rabbit Shankar thrilled the crowd. The cartoon illustrations feature furry, long-haired woodchucks, beavers, squirrels, and other animals, all dressed in hippie attire. Saltzman crams his text with puns based on song lyrics and slang from the '60s. In fact, most of the book will be incomprehensible to the picture-book crowd, whose parents (or grandparents?) may purchase a copy in a burst of nostalgia. Libraries can pass.
Kathy Piehl, Mankato State University,
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

As woodchucks Zal and May stand on a grassy knoll with their three children--Vera, Chook and Dave--the father tells the furry youngsters why they have come to this spot in the Cat Skull mountains. Exactly 25 years before, Zal and May traveled (via their friend's VW van, covered with painted flowers) to the Woodchuck Festival, where thousands of woodchucks, squirrels, prairie dogs and beavers gathered to celebrate "paws and love," and to listen to the music of Jimi Hendrake, Jerry Garseagull and Joe Cockatoo. Buller (coauthor of Railroad Toad and No Tooth, No Quarter! ) gives Saltzman's clever sendup a big boost with his riotous, revisionist depiction of the Woodstock scene--complete with tents, tie-dyed shirts, right-on signs ("Remember Bambi's Mother!"; "Chicken Little Was Right") and totally mellow animal faces. Yesterday's kids will be best able to appreciate songwriter and debut author Saltzman's period-based wordplay and allusions to '60s lyrics (Zal gets some Norwegian wood for his birthday; May--then called Macra-May--tells him, "I am you as you are me and we are furry woodchucks--all together"). All ages.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.

While the woodchuck family waits in a meadow wondering whether anyone else will show up for the reunion, Daddy tells his kids about the fabulous Woodchuck Festival 25 years ago, when such luminaries as Rabbit Shankar and ``that web-footed wonder of psychedelic guitar, Jimi Hendrake'' played for a crowd so huge that he and his pals Digger and Macra-May decided to park their van and hike in through the Cat Skull Mountains. As parody, the reprise of the celebration of ``paws and love'' will make less sense to today's children than to their elders (now about to be grandparents), who are sure to delight in the comical new settings for catch phrases like ``This is really messing up my head'' or ``It's the ultimate love-in!'' Still, kids will enjoy the feel-good story with its surprise ``Hippie birthday'' denouement and Buller's cheerfully laid-back cartoon-style illustrations of the flower-chucks and the concluding reunion, when Digger turns up in a sleek RV with an ``O-WOW'' license number and a ``Liberate Toad Hall'' bumper sticker. Clever and fun. (Picture book. 5+) -- Copyright ©1994, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.