Book Review: Trouble with Trolls (girl, dog, trolls)

Trouble with Trolls, written and illustrated by Jan Brett (Putnam Penguin, 2003, 32 pages, $16.99, Preschool to Grade 3)

Prolific and gifted storyteller-artist Jan Brett continues to enthrall us over the decades, this time with Trouble with Trolls.

Intricate and detailed drawings of the forest and also of Norwegian sweaters and caps abound, even on the borders and edges of each page showing the underground home of trolls. Such detail may keep the interest of the adults reading this book but also serve to start the child chattering imaginatively about troll life and troll houses among the tree roots.

Trolls are Rare Creatures Said to Live Somewhere on Mount Baldy

Treva and her dog Tuffi (almost a Nordic breed) climb Mount Baldy one winter’s day and plan to ski down the other side on their way to their cousin’s house. Unfortunately, trolls love dogs and manage to capture Tuffi.

How Treva tricks a troll into trading Tuffi for her mittens, and then tricks another troll into trading Tuffi for her pom-pom hat, and yet a third troll into trading Tuffi for her classic Norwegian snowflake sweater only to run into twin trolls.

This time she loses her warm Nordic boots only to find more trolls waiting at the top of Mount Baldy.

Now clad only in long-johns and striped socks, Treva unstraps her skis from her back and tells the trolls she can fly with them but needs her mittens and then her hat and then her sweater and then her boots and then Tuffi.

Having been outwitted, the mountain trolls are never seen again.

But, on an early spring day, if you search really hard, perhaps you can see all that is left of the trolls that Treva outwitted in order to save her best friend.

And Again

Need I say again that the illustrations make this book as well as the clever tale?

I will: your child will love this story about a girl and her dog and the terrible trolls, and you will love finding the clever details in the illustrations.

Yesterday: The First Dog, also by Jan Brett

Caveat: DogEvals purchases items for review unless otherwise noted. This book was borrowed from the public library.