Orange Aardvark

Michael Hall's presentation at the Red Balloon today completely enchanted the young audience members. After showing photographs of aardvarks large and small and requesting help in making the noise of a drill when it appears in the story, he introduced the main characters in It's an Orange Aardvark!: five carpenter ants and, of course, an orange aardvark. As the drilling carpenter ant let in light from outside the stump, the other ants fret about what might be out there. An orange aardvark? An orange aardvark wearing blue pajamas? An orange aardvark with a ketchup bottle? I won't spoil the ending here. Just know the young listeners enjoyed it...and the adults, too.

My favorite thing, though, was watching the little people respond to Michael's requests to help him as he demonstrated how he created the artwork for the book using paper and simple shapes. When the tiny triangles from the aardvark's foot were not needed, the audience blew them off the screen. Multiple times. When they snapped their fingers, the pieces magically shifted places. Michael's own hands deftly moved his shapes or garnered facial expressions in responses to his words. Wide eyes and open mouths surrounded me on the story steps.