Love for underappreciated creatures

Beauty comes in all sizes, shapes, numbers of legs and colors of fur. The animals touted in these new picture books can seem unloved at times but are actually full of tremendous qualities and character.

“Tony” by Ed Galing; illustrated by Erin E. Stead; A Neal Porter Book/Roaring Brook Press; 30 pages; $16.99.

This little gem of a book is introduced with the words “Tony was all white, large, sturdy, with wide gentle eyes and a ton of love.” Tony was a wonderful horse with a young driver named Tom, and they set out very early in the morning to pull a wagon and deliver milk, butter and eggs. Tony’s eyes would glow when Tom patted him, and he would wait patiently during deliveries. The narrator outwardly appreciates the hardworking horse when he receives his deliveries, noting that he “wouldn’t miss Tony for the world.” He gives him a pat and tells him what a wonderful kind horse he is.

Young readers will enjoy the satisfactory ending of the late Ed Galing’s ode to a special workhorse. It’s pretty clear Tony hears the compliment and does a little dance as he walks away. A truly calm reminder to love and admire animals and of the power of complements, Galing’s poem is made ethereal and dream-like with Erin E. Stead’s vintage pencil sketches. This book is certainly special and calming at a time when many are overly vivid and loud.

“Blue Ethel” by Jennifer Black Reinhardt; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 32 pages; $17.99.

Ethel is an old fat black-and-white cat that’s stuck in her ways. Every day, Ethel goes outside to survey the land, monitor the weather and roll around on her favorite sidewalk square. One day, though, she rolls around in a child’s chalk artwork on the sidewalk and gets blue streaks on her fur, and her friends whisper things like: “Cerulean!” “How odd!” and “Ethel’s Blue!” These comments make her feel blue. But then, while wallowing and peering out the window, she notices her slim white friend Fluffy, whose fur is now pink. The pair surveys the land, monitors the weather, and rolls and rolls and rolls around all over the sidewalk square to become colorful.

A sweet tale of friendship and openness with a lesson of “you’re never too old to change,” Jennifer Black Reinhardt’s low-key book becomes more alive as it goes on, until the gorgeous last pages of the cats admiring a sky as colorful as a vivid rainbow. “And some days she was still white ... unless another color caught her fancy,” the book reads.

“Escargot” by Dashka Slater; pictures by Sydney Hanson; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 32 pages; $16.99.

Charming snail Escargot acknowledges that “Nobody ever says their favorite animal is the snail,” notices there are no snail cookies (they’re shaped like dogs and goats and hippos) in a French bakery and says her trails aren’t slimy but shimmery. She petitions for favorite animal status charmingly and invites readers to join her as she travels to a “beautiful salad, with croutons and a light vinaigrette.” Escargot contradicts those who think snails are shy as she makes a fierce face to scare a carrot away from the salad. For those who think snails are too slow to have favorite-animal status, she pulls turtle tricks and says she’s as fast as the wind while winning the race to the salad.

Finally, a child rescues the funny snail from the salad, and it’s Escargot who calls him “Magnifique” even without a shimmery trail or a fierce face. Escargot is 100 percent adorable, and her wide eyes, red scarf, striped French sweater and beret will certainly make readers fall in love with her — and, hopefully, all snails. She’s a keeper. Forget “the baboon or the koala or the earwig.”