Could it be that what's behind a tornado's fury isn't a meteorological imperative but an anger management problem? So conjectures Drew Beckmeyer (The Long Island) in I Am a Tornado, which is so hilarious and psychologically astute that any other authors contemplating a picture book about a cow playing therapist to a whirling windstorm should probably think twice, as their offering is unlikely to measure up to this one.
The anthropomorphized tornado at the book's center is as egotistical as one might expect. "I AM A TORNADO," it announces as it blows by the animals ("Ouch"; "Oof"; "Ack"; "Help") in its path. "I AM SO BIG AND I AM SPINNING SO FAST," the tornado says as it swallows up a cow ("Oh no"). The cow's plea for mercy--"Could you put me down?"--is rebuffed: "NO. WATCH THIS!" The tornado guiltlessly takes out a house. Notes the cow, "Hey, someone could've been in there." The tornado is unmoved: "I DON'T CARE."
The cow, still ensnared by the fiendish squall, tries a new tack: "Tornado, is everything okay?" The tornado flatly denies that it could be having any issues: "WHY WOULD I NOT BE OKAY?" The cow continues to press; the tornado continues to practice denial. Through it all, the cow is ceaselessly compassionate, telling some meddling scientists to back off and reassuring the tornado, "With all these violently changing cold winds high in the sky, and that warm air rising from the ground, I can see how it would make anyone a little irritable." Finally, the tornado lets down its guard, hinting at an abandonment issue: "IF I DID DECIDE TO PUT YOU DOWN, WOULD YOU RUN AWAY?"
It's all as wonderfully wacky as it sounds, the essential lesson about the importance of being honest with oneself never eclipsing the comedy at the book's heart. Working in chunkily cut paper in blunt colors against vivid backdrops, Beckmeyer injects some science into the silly, using arrows to indicate that wind results from the collision between warm air and cold air, creating a "swirling rage funnel." In Beckmeyer's interpretation, that rage funnel resembles a chocolate-colored cone with googly eyes under Eugene Levy eyebrows. I Am a Tornado may well encourage some young readers to say "I am upset" instead of becoming destructive storms of flesh-and-blood emotion, but if that fails, at least the book will make them stop and smile. --Nell Beram, freelance writer and YA author
Shelf Talker: This hilarious and psychologically astute picture book conjectures that an anger management problem is behind a tornado's fury.