A recent visit to the library brought me to a great new release by an author/illustrator I admire.
And since fall brings the start of new adventures, I thought it was just the time to share his work with you.
In “Norman and the Smell of Adventure” (2025, written and illustrated by Ryan T. Higgins, Disney-Hyperion, ages 3-8), we learn, “Norman was a porcupine. His best friend was Mildred. Mildred was a tree.”
The illustrations show Norman, prickly but adorable with big expressive eyes, swinging in Mildred’s branches, reading, and observing birds.
We read that they had many favorite things to do, “But one morning Norman wanted to try different things.”
Mildred seemed to have no interest (and readers will laugh at Norman’s many responses to her silence, such as, “What?! I am NOT shaped like a gumdrop!”), so Norman storms off on his own.
As he heads down a road, Norman stumbles upon a cactus in a pot.
When he introduces himself, the cactus is still and quiet.
“Norman knew this must mean it was very wise.”
He confides that he’s gotten in a fight with his best friend, and in the quiet of her response, he thinks, “Ohhhhh … you’re not going to tell me what to do. What I should do is tell myself what to do.”
So, he tells himself to find an adventure, and scurries away.
In looking for his adventure, he explores deep caves, rows rivers, wades through swamps, “At one point, Norman thought he caught the smell of adventure in the air. But it was just the smell of wet moose.”
When he heads up high so he can see where he is, he can see for miles.
He sees many trees.
“But none of them were Mildred.”
“Mildred would love this view …,” he thinks.
He believes he’s just had an adventure and that it’s time to go home.
Off he goes, trekking back from where he’s come.
When he sees the cactus, he wonders to her whether he was wrong to leave.
But in the cactus’ wise silence, he realizes, “Best friends don’t have to do everything together.”
“The cactus had many good points,” he thinks.
The story ends as Norman shares his adventure with Mildred.
He knows it’s okay to head off again, “when the smell of adventure was in the air.”
“But he always came back.”
Higgins’ first book about Norman, “Norman Didn’t Do It! (Yes, he did.)” (2021, Disney-Hyperion, ages 3-8), shows the same clever wit and dramatic depth as Norman grapples with another issue of friendship.
Norman was happy doing everything with Mildred.
“Norman and Mildred. Mildred and Norman. Just the two of them.”
Until one day, a sprout pops out of the ground.
“And WHO is THAT?!” Norman shouts to Mildred.
As the other tree grows, Norman begins to worry, building to the terrible thought: “What if Mildred liked the other tree MORE than she liked Norman?!”
He watches as the other tree grows, coming closer and closer to Mildred, until they TOUCH!
“It was the last straw.”
“This is the last straw!” he shouts, mouth open so wide we can see down his throat.
Norman can’t lose his best friend to the other tree. He has to do something. He makes a plan, then “under the cover of night” digs up the other tree and hauls it — over a series of spreads, including a voyage on a rowboat — far, far away.
But when he returns to Mildred, things don’t feel the same.
“Other tree?” he asks Mildred.
“What other tree?”
In another series of spreads, we see his guilty feelings growing as he thinks about Mildred without her new friend and about the other tree alone on the island where he’d replanted it, until finally he shouts, “WHAT HAVE I DONE?!”
Young readers will both laugh at his dramatic antics and identify with his guilt over having done something wrong.
And readers will be satisfied with the ending, as “Norman … and Mildred … and the other tree” reunite.
“Just the three of them.”
