Another great offering from Renee Riva and Steve Bjorkman. This book opens with Guido, a gondola owner, shuttling tourists by day in the canals of Venice. At night he takes lovers for rides in the moonlight. He is one happy little rat until various fares convince him that he needs faster and bigger boats and he trades in and moves up as any good business man would.

The language is fun, the rhyme and rhythm are done well, and the story is interesting. The pictures fit nicely with the whole Venice/gondola theme, but could have had some more fun elements to match the fun tone of the writing, I think. My favorite part of the illustrations was the way the artist captured the people who encouraged Guido to buy bigger boats. From the pictures, I could actually hear an accent as the characters spoke.

There were a couple of stanzas that didn't work. The way others viewed Guido--thinking him to be a saint and fearing that he might blow away in bad weather--didn't fit.

The message--Better one handful with tranquility than two handfuls with toil and chasing after the wind (Ecclesiastes 4:6)--came through in a humorous and heartwarming way. But mostly I like Guido's Gondola because each time I read the story I find new things to enjoy--new expressions on the faces, new insights into Guido from the text--and that's a sign of a good picture book.

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Copyright © 2006 Sally Apokedak