Starred Review ALA Booklist (Fri Sep 01 00:00:00 CDT 2017)

Starred Review When Lola the armadillo spills juice all over the sofa, she cries, "I've ruined everything!" There's only one thing for it, of course: running away. On her dash to the library ("they have books and bathrooms"), she meets a bear who just obliterated a swing. Then a sheep who accidentally snipped a hose with garden shears. Then a puffer fish who ruins a cake. Then utter chaos ensues: everywhere they run, someone has ruined something. Tsurumi's pages are dizzyingly jam-packed with disasters committed by cartoonish animals of all stripes: a bull sheepishly exits a china shop with an armful of broken dishes. A narwhal bursts a balloon with its tusk. A toucan wets his pants. A turtle smashes shell first into a pie. A chicken is served an egg for breakfast! All the while, huge, calamitous words in playful, hand-drawn fonts loom large iasco!" "Big Big Trouble!" "Wrecked!" and, finally, "CATASTROPHE," when poor Lola can't even escape mayhem in the library (check out that owl stamping a library patron's face). Luckily, a wise bird reminds Lola that her initial spill was just an accident, and soon everyone's graciously apologizing and helping to tidy up the city. Tsurumi comically gets to the heart of how children frantically worry about mistakes, and poring over the riotous illustrations is pure joy. This will delight again and again.

Kirkus Reviews

Oopses occur when animals of varied sizes, colors, and species wreak havoc around town and pay a riotous price—but learn a valuable life lesson. Trouble begins on the title-page spread when Lola, a smooth, yellow armadillo, haplessly spills juice on a white armchair. Her solution? To hide in the library until adulthood. On the way, Lola encounters three neighbors, each of whom has experienced a misfortune, and they join her. So intent are they on reaching safe haven that no one notices that everyone else around is embroiled in disasters, and troubles escalate from there. Tsurumi portrays accumulating sequences of missteps in breathless, hilarious detail; children will have great fun poring over and savoring the escapades, some of which are depicted small. Besides honing visual-literacy skills, this is a neat vehicle for developing vocabulary, as pertinent themed words ("FIASCO!"; "MAYHEM!") are wittily incorporated into the comical illustrations as sound effects or speech-balloon dialogue. Aside from that, text is sparse. At the end, the point is made that some unlucky occurrences are, well, accidents. Sweet scenes showing concerned neighbors apologizing, making restitution, and dutifully cleaning up clarify that such incidents are forgivable and fixable. The final pages, depicting Lola's parent also experiencing an oops-able moment, convey this message more pointedly. Note a final, delightful "accident" on the back endpapers. Accidents are OK. This entertaining romp acknowledges that those who have them are OK, too. (Picture book. 4-7)

Publishers Weekly (Fri Oct 06 00:00:00 CDT 2023)

When a little armadillo named Lola knocks a jug of red juice all over her family-s white sofa, she flees to the library to hide (-They have books and bathrooms,- she reasons). But as Lola runs, it becomes apparent that she is far from an outlier: the entire city is plagued by hapless inhabitants who aren-t owning up to the messes they-re making. In her first picture book, cartoonist Tsurumi offers an ingenious and utterly hilarious take on this important moral issue. Her sprawling but precisely drawn and crisply colored spreads-dotted with chewy words like -Calamity!- Fiasco!- and -Mayhem!--are utterly crammed with screw-ups that reward sharp-eyed readers: blenders explode, pants are wet, octopus ink is sprayed, and not even the library is a safe zone. Finally, a red bird who has witnessed everything teaches Lola a two-part lesson: when a mistake happens-whether through thoughtlessness, carelessness, or bad luck-it-s okay to call it an accident, but it-s also necessary to -make it better.- Together, Lola and readers finish the story with their consciences pricked, assuaged, and thoroughly tickled. Ages 4-7. Agent: Stephen Barr, Writers House. (Oct.)