Squirrels in Antarctica​ by Sari Karplus Book Tour, Guest Post & More! {Ends 4/10/24}

Review By LAWonder10:

Squirrels in Antarctica is a humorous, well-rhymed story of outrageous, make-believe, fantastical pairings.

It encourages children to use their imagination to concoct absurd combining of animals and situations or geographical possibilities.

The illustrations by Todd Wilkerson are delightfully colorful and fun.

Although this is a fun story to encourage outrageous ideas and to develop imagination, I felt it went a little too far without clarifying these were unrealistic but fun to occasionally do.

I offer a Four-Stars rating for this book.

This book was gifted to me with no pressure to post a positive review. This is my honest review.

A comic and an actor walk into a project… Stop me if you heard this one before By Sari Karplus.

Fun fact about the team that created Squirrels in Antarctica: we both have IMDb profiles, and we’re not afraid to use them. In other words, we both also work in the film and television industry. Todd Wilkerson, the illustrator/actor with the “mostest”, has been on a number of commercials and TV shows. He is hilarious, do check him out if you can!

Personally, I have a background in directing and stand-up comedy. One of my beta readers asked if Todd and I met on a filmed project. But ironically, we met the old-fashioned way: I randomly emailed him after admiring his work online. His amazing art was on display on the SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators) website gallery, and the tone of his illustrations perfectly matched what I had envisioned.

Shortly after we started working together on this project, Todd and I came to realize that we actually live less than 15 minutes from each other! Upon learning of our close proximity, I insisted that all future notes be given via tin can telephone. This threat was never realized, but I cannot confirm or deny that I am stockpiling string and cans.

Squirrels in Antarctica is my fourth children’s book, after my three Robotastic! books. It’s the second book Wilkerson has illustrated. This is our first project working together. Who knows, maybe we’ll get to work together again… I’ll text him via tin can telephone and let you know what he says.